Middle School
by Trampled Under Foot
Summary: The gang starts middle school, everyone seems to deal well with the changes, though Tj and Spinelli struggle to understand where they fit in the new school.
1. Chapter 1

The gang is starting middle school, everyone seems to be fine with the changes but Tj and Spinelli struggle to find out where they belong in the new school.

So I'm not much of a writer, though I love cartoons, so I'm just taking a shot at it.

Let me know your thoughts, comments, concerns, ideas, or just help me fix my grammar. (Certain characters will use slang)

Also just a warning I'm the queen of run on sentences, and I often put comma's in places they don't belong. Feel free to correct me when you see a mistake, I can take it.

 **So this story starts in September, 2000 (Recess starts in 1997 while the gang are in 4th grade so by the time the gang are going into 7th grade it is the year 2000** )

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"Well this whomps, anyone got any ideas?" Tj turned to his friends hoping for some useful advice. They sat around the counter at Kelso's sipping milkshakes, Tj called this meeting of the gang to assist him with an urgent issue.

"How bout Old Glory?" Spinelli suggested.

"Who?"

"Gus you know that kid Donny that helped us fly Prickly's pants up the flag pole!"

"Oh yeah I still can't believe that plan worked." Gus laughed at the memory.

"No way he's Randal's cousin! At any given time he can become a snitch!"

"Vince the sharing of genes does not cause people to have identical social behaviors, for example- you and your brother Chad. I believe Donny would do quite well, let us ask Galileo for his two cents."

Gretchen hadn't changed too much since the 4th grade, she still relied on Galileo to assist with her research, though now that she's getting older she is finding more difficult subjects to research. As for her appearance that hasn't changed much other than growing a few inches, as did all of her friends.

The rest of the gang pretty much stayed the same. Same ole personalities, same taste in style, same aspirations for life. Mikey's voice had started to change during the previous summer, now the other guys voice's are following suit, and Gus hit a bit of a growth spurt, making Spinelli the shortest in the gang again much to her chagrin.

"Good morning Gretchen what can I assist you with on this fine summer day?"

"Galileo, As king of the play ground Tj was given the task of appointing the next king, his first choice just announced that he is moving Vancouver and will be unable to perform his duties, would you agree that Donny would be the next best king?"

"Gretchen I would love to help you but I'm afraid I don't know who this Donny fellow is."

"What!? Of course you do! He helped us send Principal Prickley's pants up the flag pole, and in response King Tj formally nicked-named him Old Glory. Of course you know who he is, check your files!"

"I'm sorry Gretchen there is nothing in my system about Donny."

"This doesn't make sense I had pictures and a video of the event" Gretchen fumbled around with Galileo and did a manual search hoping it was just a glitch in the system. "... Oh my! Everything from that prank and afterwords is missing! Hopefully I have everything saved on my personal computer at home, I am going to run home and check, I'll meet up with you all later!"

"Actually I gotta bounce too, almost time for practice, you guys wanna come over tonight and have a fire, maybe make some smores?" Vince stood up and collected his baseball gear, while other members of the gang stood up preparing to disperse.

"I'm not sure I'm going to be able to eat smores later, I have to go to the orthodontist to get my braces tightened, usually I can only do liquids after that, but I'll still go." Shortly after the start of 6th grade, Gus was sentenced to 3 years with braces as if glasses weren't bad enough. Luckily his best friend was king of the playground and passed a law forbidding any one to call a kid four-eyes or brace-face, now he just has to deal with the physical pain of the gear.

"Sounds like a plan! Well, I am going to see if I can find Donny, we only have a week left before school starts and I think he is best fit for the position. Spinelli you wanna come?" Tj placed his hand on Spinelli's shoulder a gesture that usually persuaded her to follow his plans.

"Sorry King Teej, I have to go back to school shopping with my mom." She gagged.

"Ouch good luck." Tj wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "You coming to Vince's tonight?"

"Yeah why not, I'll call Mikey and tell him to meet us there once he gets outta practice, good luck with Donny."

"See you guys later!" Tj waved to the gang and made his way to Donny's house to appoint the next king of the playground to the throne.

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"Hi Tj how are you doing sweetie!" Flo Spinelli warmly welcomed Tj inside her home.

"I'm doing good , how are you doing Mrs. Spinelli?"

"Oh just Wonderful! Ashley and I just got back from shopping, we had a wonderful afternoon!"

"It was mediocre at best!" Spinelli shouted as she made her way downstairs.

"Oh Pookie one day you'll cherish these moments we had together."

"Yeah Pookie lighten up." Tj laughed at his friend's nickname but stopped after he was reprimanded by Madame Fist.

"Tj would you like some cookies? We have Chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, peanut but..."

"Ma we gotta go, we're going to Vince's place for smores."

Spinelli grabbed Tj by the jacket and headed for the door.

"I'll take a rain check, thank you Mrs. Spinelli! " Tj waved goodbye to Flo and followed Spinelli to Vince's house.

"That women is nuts!"

"Sounds like shopping went well."

"It was terrible, she keeps trying to turn me into some prissy little girl! Look what she did to my nails!" Spinelli flashed Tj her french manicure.

"Ooooh girl! You got your nails did!" He mocked in the girliest voice he could possibly make.

"Dude shut it. She also tried buying me a ton of new shoes, like I'd ever take off my boots." Spinelli slowed her pace and looked down at her boots, Tj wrapped his arm around her shoulders, he knew what the boots meant to her.

"How much time does Vito have left?"

"4 years! I haven't seen him in 3 years, I really miss him."

Tj wrapped his other arm around her and pulled her into a hug.

"Well there's nothing you can do about it, lets just go to Vince's enjoy some smores, friendship, and the last week of summer.

"Yeah okay, say how did it go with Donny?

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Tj and Spinelli were the last to arrive at Vince's house, the whole gang was already there sitting around a fire.

"Hey you guys finally made it." Vince greeted the two.

"So Tj I heard you payed Old Glory a visit, so does third street have a new king?"Mikey asked, being absent from the last meeting due to his choir practice, as summer came to a close the school teams and clubs began practices to prepare for the upcoming school year, Vince became busy with baseball and football, Gretchen with math club and science club, Gus grew an interest in history and joined model U.N club, Mikey as mentioned was in choir and continued to take dance lessons with Mademoiselle Pavlova as does Spinelli. Tj didn't find any clubs that he cared to join and spent the summer hanging out with his friends when they weren't participating in extra curriculars.

"We're still working out some of the details, but yes 3rd street has a new king."

"Shoot we only have 5 chairs, I'll go rummage the garage for another." Vince started towards the garage but was stopped when Tj spoke up.

"Don't worry about it, this one is big enough to share, let's get this party started." Tj sat down on a folding chair in front of the fire and motioned for Spinelli to join him.

"Since you're forcing me to sit next to you are you going to make my smore for me?" Spinelli said as she sat next to Tj, resting her back against the arm rest, her body crossing over Tj and put her legs on the other arm rest.

"I'm on it."

"Speaking of food service, remember when Lawson bet Vince that he couldn't eat the entire helping of the cafeteria mystery meat, and he had to make Vince lunch for the rest of the week." Mikey remembered a elementary bet fondly.

"I could never forget that, I wasn't able to eat any of those lunches, that mystery meat wrecked my stomach for the entire month! I had to give those lunches to Mikey."

"That's what I loved best about that bet, he may not have been Chez Vince, but Lawson knew his way around the kitchen."

"I miss beating him on everything."

"Well we are going to deal with him and his gang starting next week, Gus your marshmallow is on fire." Gretchen pointed out.

"Ahhh!" Gus waved around his stick trying to put out the small torch, finally Gretchen stopped it by blowing it out, she rolled her eyes, typical Gus. "Thanks Gretch. Yeah, I can't believe we're starting middle school next week."

"It is strange, the years are flying by, next thing we know we'll be in college!" Gretchen replaced the burnt marshmallow on Gus's stick and positioned it perfectly to reach it's full potential.

"Kinda whomps to think about it."

"What do you mean Vince?"

"Well we're all so different, who knows where we'll end up in college."

"You're right Vince, I doubt any of you will be applying to Yale or Harvard." Gretchen frowned.

"Not if you don't want me to." Spinelli joked.

"I don't think I'm going to college I'm probably going to enlist to the Army right out of high school."

Mikey opened his mouth and said something, but all the sweets in his mouth prevented him from saying anything audible.

"You said it man... Well you said something." Spinelli turned to Tj who was looking down at the ground, she threw a marshmallow at his face.

"What... hey let's not talk like that, we can go to different schools and still be friends." Tj spoke up.

"We can try."

"I want you guys to promise me that no matter where life takes us we will still be friends."

"Yeah man."

"Sure Teej."

"Promise."

"I swear."

"Yeah why not, now where's that smore you were supposed to make me."


	2. Chapter 2

Special shout out to the first 2 reviewers "Suck My Goochie" and "Guest" thank you :)

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"Where on earth is Spinelli? We cannot be tardy on our first day of school." Gretchen looked frantically at her watch.

"Maybe she slept through her alarm." Mikey suggested.

"Nah I called her this morning, she's definitely up." Tj looked around hoping to see Spinelli come around the corner.

"Should we go on without her?"

"You guys can, I'm going to her place to see whats holding her up."

Tj darted towards her house slightly worried about her absence, Spinelli usually is on time for most things, unless Tj's own tardiness holds her up. Tj walked up to her door just as Bob Spinelli was walking out on his way to work, usually he is gone before Tj and Spinelli walk to school, the whole Spinelli family must be running late today.

"Morning Mr. Spinelli, is Ashley not going to school today?"

"Oh she's going, she and her mother are in one of their world famous arguments. I've got to get to work, why don't you head on in there and drag Ashley's butt to school."

"Will do sir, have a good day."

"And you have yourself a good first day of school son."

Tj walked in the house just as Flo was walking down the stairs looking upset and defeated, her eyes lit up at the sight of Tj.

"Oh Tj! I am so glad to see you, Ashley is refusing to come out of her room, maybe you can talk some sense into her."

"Sure I'll give it a shot." Tj ran up the stairs, stopped at the door with the beware sign and skull stickers and knocked. He winced at the sound of something being thrown at the door.

"I ain't going ma! Nothing you can say will change my mind!" Spinelli yelled.

"Can I change your mind?" Tj barged in her room, once he saw her his eyes nearly popped out of his head.

"Doubt it."

Spinelli wasn't donning her typical attire. Her red dress and leather jacket were replaced by a white flowy summer dress and a pink long sleeved knit sweater. Her red and orange leggings were replaced by tan nylons that matched her skin tone. Her orange ski cap was missing and had no replacement. Her hair was taken out of her pig tails and left down, and the biggest change was the lack of the hand-me-down boots, instead she had on a pair of pink half inch heels that matched the color of her sweater.

"Wow you look..." Tj started but was cut off by his angry friend.

"Like an Ashley! This is going to ruin my reputation! I look like a prissy little..."

"No you look good."

"Can it! You're not king anymore, so I can go back to kicking your saggy butt!"

Tj placed his hand on her shoulder to calm her down before Madame fist came out to play.

"Hey now I'm serious, but if you don't want to go to school like that why don't you meet your mom in the middle."

"What do you mean?"

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"Mrs. Spinelli, Ashley has a proposition for you." Tj greeted Flo, once he had her attention he stepped to the side to present Spinelli's new look.

"Awww Pookie!"

She kept the white sun dress and her hair down but gave everything else a suttle change. She replaced the knit sweater with her old leather jacket, the nylons with red knitted tights, and to match she wore a red knitted beret instead of putting on her old orange ski cap.

"Give me the boots back or no deal!"

"Well alright. At least you're changing it up a little." Flo had hid the old boots Spinelli's brother gave her in an attempt to change her style.

"Thanks Tj. I didn't think I'd ever get those boots back."

"Solving problems, it's what I do. Now come on it's getting late!"

"Oh I'll drive you two, but first I need a picture."

"Ma!"

"Ashley I have a picture of you from all the first days of school since you were in Kindergarten, now come on! Tj get in the picture!"

Spinelli rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, Tj flashed the camera huge smile and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, once he did that she lightened up a little and smiled slightly at the camera.

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"Thank god your mom brought us to school we just barley made it."

"Yeah sorry I almost made you late."

"It's cool, I think I see Mikey lets go catch up with him."

They walked towards Mikey's direction he was standing in front of the rest of the gang, so no one saw Tj and Spinelli walking their way.

"Hey guys sorry about this morning." Spinelli greeted the gang, but they stood silent, staring back at her with blank expressions on their face.

"Spinelli!?" Vince finally spoke up.

"Your clothes...?" Gus couldn't even get the words out.

"You wanna make something of it!?" Spinelli rolled her jacket sleeves up to prepare to for a long day of threats.

"Well everyone I got our schedules, gosh this is going to be strange, we have all been in the same class since kindergarten, well except for Gus." Gretchen walked up with six pieces of paper and handed them out to the group. "Spinelli you made it just in time, I like your dress... let me guess your mom?"

Spinelli nodded her head and took her schedule from Gretchen. The rest of the gang took their schedules and matched them with each other.

"Well at least we all have lunch together." Tj always looked at the bright side of things.

"That's only half an hour that we have the whole gang together." Gus whined.

"I guess that's what happens when we have such a diverse group, hey Gretchen it looks like we have English together, and we have health class with Gus."

"Mikey we also have gym together." Gus turned to look at Tj's schedule. "Hey Tj we have history and study hall together."

"Spinelli is with us too. Wow actually Spinelli and I have all the same classes except home economics... Wait Spinelli why are you taking home economics?" Tj looked back at her schedule and laughed hysterically, he couldn't imagine Spinelli cooking or doing any sort of house keeping.

"I'm not, that's your schedule Teej."

"Oh well that's disappointing." The gang shared a laugh but was cut short by the bell ringing, They said their goodbyes, promised to meet up for lunch and joined the heard of lost students.

"K, I've already lost my schedule, what do we have first?" Tj searched through his pockets for the missing piece of paper with no luck, Spinelli whacked the red cap off his head and handed him the piece of paper that was folded inside of it. "Ah right on." He reached back for his hat but Spinelli pulled it away from him.

"Nope you lost your hat privileges" She put the cap backwards on her head over her beret.

Spinelli lead the way to their first class, the class was half full when they walked in, they looked around for two vacant seats next to each other, not too close to the front so they can goof off, but not all the way in the back so they can still learn something and get a decent grade, they found something in the 3rd row by the window. They sat down and began a game of paper football so intense that they didn't see the teacher walk in, or one of their well known classmates.

"Teacher! Teacher! Tj and Spinelli are playing paper football!" A whiny boy shouted from behind them.

"Randall..." They said in unison, giving each other annoyed glances, then turned to their attention to the teacher, who looked a little confused at the scene in front of him.

"Well uh you can call me Mr. Flynn , And that's fine since class hasn't started yet."

"But but but, the bell rang and I read the school handbook."

"It's okay this time, let's put the football away and just jump into math. As I said I'm Mr. Flynn, and I want to start off by seeing what your weak points are..."

Randall couldn't believe what he just heard, he gave the teacher some moist information and he didn't do anything about it, it's almost like he doesn't want kids to get into trouble. Weird. Well he couldn't just let Tj and Spinelli get away with that.


	3. Chapter 3

Thank you for the advice "Someone". I read this chapter out loud while I was editing it, I think it flows a little better. I really appreciate the help :)

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"Finally I'm starving!." Tj and Spinelli walked down to the cafeteria, excited to eat and to see their other friends and hear about how their first days are going.

"TJ! SPINELLI! OVER HERE!" They heard Mikey yell. They walked over to the table he was sitting at, he was already eating his packed lunch.

"Hey big guy, hows the first day treating you?"

"Fantastic, I met this kid who's traveled all over Europe. Just this past summer he was in Italy taking part of a singing group that does street performances and plays at fancy bistro's, he's got connections all over!"

"That's great big guy."

"What about you guys, did you have the joy of meeting any new friends?"

"Nah I've had all my classes with Tj so far, I haven't had the chance to meet anyone cool yet."

Tj opened his mouth to say something snarky, when Gretchen came over to the table.

"Greetings everyone."

"Hey Gretch, how's your day been?"

"Oh it's been wonderful. The teachers have been great, these texts books are actually up to date, and have you guys been to the computer lab yet? It's going to be a fantastic year!"

Gretchen started on her lunch, then Vince and Gus joined the table.

"Alright the whole gangs back together!"

"Yo Gus how's your day going?"

"Great! Did you guys know they have a drill team here, I'm definitely signing up! What about you Vince?"

"My day has been pretty sweet too. My music class was overfilled so I had to sign up for a different class, the guidance counselor actually let me sign up for another gym class!"

"Nice man, me and Spin..."

"That's not even the best part guess who the gym teacher is!"

"Who is it?"

"College football champ Duke Windsor."

"The Duke? What's he doing teaching middle school gym? He's a local hero!"

"He blew out his knee and was forced to quit. Having a pro teach me is going to make my game even better!"

"Wow this year sounds like it's going to be great for everyone!" Gus said excitedly.

"Agreed, cheers to a great year and great friends!" Mikey raised his juice box to the air.

"Cheers man."

The gang tapped their drinks together in celebration, the bell rang and they left as quickly as they came, leaving Spinelli and Tj alone again.

"Wow they all seem really happy." Tj turned to Spinelli.

"Yeah our day seemed really average compared to theirs."

"Yeah well we're only half way through the day, who knows maybe we're in for a surprise."

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"Well that was extremely uneventful." Spinelli sighed as her and Tj left the school.

"Let's see if the gang wants to go to Kelso's."

"Yo Vince!"

"Hey guys what's up?"

"We're trying to get the gang together to go to Kelso's, you in?"

"Sounds good. I don't know about Gus though, he's staying after to try out for Drill team."

"That's cool we should go and support hi, then we can go to Kelso's."

The gang waited for Gretchen and Mikey to show up then made their way to the gym to watch Gus's try out. As they walked through the gym doors a group of cheerleaders ran up to them, shoving them out of the way.

"Hey watch it powder puffs!" Spinelli waved her fist in the air at them.

"Hey Guys!" Gus waved them over to the bleachers. "What're you doing here?"

"We're here to cheer you on old friend, It's not everyday that one of our friends get to live out their dreams." Mikey patted Gus's back.

"READY! OKAY!"

Everyone turned their heads to the center of the gym where the Cheerleaders were practicing.

"Gus did you get the wrong day for drill team tryouts?"

"ALL DRILL TEAM WANNABEES ON THE FLOOR!" A red headed cheerleader yelled.

"What the?" Gus stared at the cheerleader confused.

"Oh but of course! The term drill team can mean many things, cheerleading, dance, and military. Sorry Gus this doesn't look like the military type." Gretchen patted Gus's back.

"Aww man I was really looking forward to drill team, now what do I do?"

"Well now we can head over to Kelso's and put this lousy day behind us, who's in?" Tj stood up to lead the gang out.

"Ahahahahaha." Some obnoxious shrill voices giggled behind them.

"So which one of you losers think they have what it takes to be a cheerleader, Gretchen? Spinelli?" Ashley A. rudely greeted the gang.

"What about Gus!" Ashley Q. cackled and the other Ashleys joined in.

"You think we'd ever want to be one of you prissy little..." Spinelli began what seemed to be her hundredth threat of the day, but was cut short by Tj.

"No one is trying out, Gus thought this was a tryout for a military drill team."

"Good we thought this was part of Spinelli's little attempt at a transformation." Ashley B. laughed.

"Yeah a new outfit is one thing, but you could never keep up with us." Ashley Q. flipped her hair.

"Yeah cuz it's real hard to throw pom poms in the air and to look cute." Spinelli mockingly flipped her hair back at Ashley Q.

"Well if you think it's so easy why don't you try it!"

"Maybe I will! Guys watch my boots!" Spinelli stepped out of her boots and ran towards the other cheerleaders.

"Oh my she is really going to try out!" Gretchen and the rest of the gang looked shocked when Spinelli ran out to the floor.

"She's going to humiliate herself!" Gus put his head in his hands.

A redheaded cheerleader stood in front of the students trying out.

"My name is Jenna I am the drill team captain, I take this team seriously. To be a part of my team you need to have the moves, the coordination, the style to make it. If you don't have what it takes please show yourself out." The Ashleys looked over at Spinelli with grins on their faces.

Jenna started the music, the other cheerleaders showed off their routine as Spinelli, the Ashleys, and all the other girls trying out watched.

"Okay we're going to do it one more time, only this time you guys are going to join in."

Jenna started the music again. all the girls trying out followed their moves, some better than others. Jenna went through the crowd pulling out kids who she thought wouldn't last, up until it was just Spinelli, and the Ashleys.

"We have only 4 spots left and 5 of you so if you want it you're going to have to try a lot harder than that!"

They started the music again only they sped it up a little, everyone keeping up with the beat until Ashley B. shoved Spinelli while Jenna's back was turned. Spinelli was able to recover and turned it into a dance move of her own, the Ashleys scowled at their failed attempt to remove their competition. Finally it all ended when Jenna noticed a flaw in Ashley Q.'s footing, she pulled her away from the group and pointed at the other Ashleys and Spinelli.

"Okay congratulations you 4 you made it, practice that routine and I'll see you guys at practice on Thursday!" The cheerleaders congratulated the girls and left.

"Well It looks like I do have what it takes after all." Spinelli walked towards the shocked gang, leaving the Ashleys angry and in shock.

"Wow Spinelli where did that come from?" Tj congratulated her with a side hug.

"The 4 years of dance with Mikey really helped." She patted Mikey's back.

"Thank you Spinelli, you have also helped me hone my dance skills over the years."

"Well I should probably tell those powder puffs that I don't want to be on their team, then we can head over to Kelso's."


	4. Chapter 4

"Someone" My original goal was to have an update once a week, but I have an essay due in 2 weeks so I've been avoiding that and pumping out chapters of this story. Thanks for the review :D

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The bell rang and students of Spiro T. Agnew Middle School ran out of the building as fast as they could, it was Friday afternoon and they had survived their first week of middle school.

"Well only 175 school days to go!" Tj smiled slightly trying to make light of the lousy circumstances.

"Who wants to go to the park and play some b-ball!" Spinelli yelled to the gang.

"A little five on Vince b-ball?" Vince asked the gang and mimed shooting hoops.

"Sounds great! Man I'm really starting to miss recess!" Gus frowned.

"I hear ya, I miss pranking, scheming, and ruling the play ground."

"The green grass, the fresh air, the sound of sneakers shuffling around on the blacktop, oh how I miss it all." Mikey sang poetically.

"Hey Gretchen!" A girl from the science club called out to Gretchen." You gotta come check out the new telescope in the science lab, It's the 'Hopskin Millennial Scope'! You can almost see the universe expanding!"

"Oh Mr. Thompson must have taken my advice when he was ordering supplies. Sorry guys, I must check this out! This telescope may help us find a new planet that can host life. I will keep you guys updated on my findings, see you later!" Gretchen ran back into the school with her new friend leaving Spinelli with just the guys.

"Well four on Vince basketball it is. I'll go grab my basketball and meet you guys at the park!" Gus waved to his friends and headed towards his house. When he arrived at the park he found Tj and Spinelli skipping rocks at the pond but Mikey and Vince were no where to be found.

"Hey where'd Mikey and Vince go?"

"The football team stole Vince for an extra practice, and Mikey met up with the choir team to harmonize or something." Tj replied.

"Well that's going to make playing Vince pretty hard."

"Basketball with three people is going to be awkward. What else do you guys wanna do?"

"I haven't been rollerblading in a while!"

"Good idea Spin!"

"Gee I don't know guys, I never learned how to roller blade." Gus said shyly.

"What? Seriously?" Spinelli raised her eye brows.

"No worries man, we'll teach you." Tj patted Gus's back.

Tj, Spinelli, and Gus rented some skates and walked over to the paved path in the park Tj linked his arm around Gus's and Spinelli did the same to give him support. They started off slowly. Tj and Spinelli thought it would be hard to teach him seeing how clumsy Gus is, but he actually picked it up quickly. Gus started to feel comfortable on his own and began doing laps around the path alone.

"He's actually pretty good." Spinelli noted.

"He's doing great! Look how fast he's going!" Tj waved to Gus to show his support.

"Uh he's going too fast, if he doesn't stop soon..."

"Wait Spinelli did you teach him how to stop?"

"No..."

"Neither did I..." Their eyes widened and they looked over at Gus.

"Gus watch out!" Spinelli shouted and covered her eyes not wanting to see the horror to come.

As they expected Gus had gone too fast and ran into another rollerblader, then fell into the pond taking the rollerblader with him.

"Like watch it Griswald!" A shrill voice yelled from the pond.

Ashley Q pushed Gus off of her, walked out of the pond and examined her outfit. Fortunately for her the black leggings and the dark skin tight graffiti print tank top she wore didn't become see through when she got soaked. Unfortunately for Gus, Ashley Q. was already in a foul mood and this was just the icing on the cake.

"Sorry Ashley Q. I never learned how to stop."

"I'm like soaking wet! and... Oh my phone! It's broken! How am I going to call my driver to tell them to pick me up!"

"There's a pay phone over by the parking lot."

"EWWWWW!" Ashley Q. screamed and made a disgusted face. "You are going to pay for this Griswald! Mark my words!"

"Here, how bout I walk you home." Gus made a motion for her to lead the way. She shoved her roller blades in his arms and led the way.

"Like I hope nobody sees us."

"Tj, Spinelli, I'll see you guys later. Thanks for teaching me how to roller blade, maybe next time you can teach me how to stop." Gus laughed and started walking the disgruntled Ashley home.

"That was awesome!" Spinelli continued to laugh at the site of her soaking wet enemy walking home.

"That was fun while it lasted, what do you want to do now." Tj sighed.

"Wanna go to my place and watch wrestling?"

"Sure. I hope your mom made cookies again." Tj had a dreamy fat kid look on his face.

"I really hope she's not there."

Spinelli was disappointed once she opened the door to her home. Though Tj was pleased, Flo stuffed him with so many cookies he could burst.

"So what are you and the gang doing this weekend?" Flo plopped herself on the couch with Tj and Spinelli as if she were one of the gang.

"Everyone's busy with their clubs n' junk, it's just me n' Teej."

"Well have you two thought about joining any clubs? You might meet some new friends in a club."

"I'm not trying to meet new friends, I'm trying to keep the ones I have."

"Well I'm not too worried, once everyone gets over the excitement of the new school year we'll probably be able to hang with the gang more."

"True, hey look the Pain Minister is in the ring tonight! I've learned some of my best moves from this guy! He does this one move... Well I can't explain it, get up!"

Flo stood up rolled her eyes and walked out of the room, she didn't mind wrestling, as long as it wasn't in her living room.

"Uh..." Tj slowly stood up hoping the move doesn't live up to the creators name.

Spinelli went for the attack but Tj knows just about all of her weak spots. He charged back at her, picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. Spinelli may be strong but if someone lifts her far enough off the ground she has great difficulties getting out of their grasp.

"Did the move look anything like this?" Tj asked as he gently tossed Spinelli's body onto the couch, he went to put her in a headlock when he tripped over her boots which she carelessly left in the middle of the room.

It took him a minute to realize what went wrong, he kept looking down with a blank expression on his face.

"Nope it didn't look anything like this." Spinelli woke him from his trance, and he finally realized that he landed on top of her, their faces only inches apart.

"Ashley, come set the table! Dinner will be ready soon!" Flo yelled from down the hall.

"Coming!" Spinelli abruptly pushed Tj to the ground and ran towards the kitchen.


	5. Chapter 5

"Someone" Yeah that scene will have some significance later on. That's all I can say about that. :P

"Guest" Thanks for reviewing

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"I'm ready for this school year to be over." Spinelli slammed her locker shut and started walking towards the front door of the school with Tj.

"We only just finished the second week of school, you can't call it quits yet."

"Yeah it's only the second week of school and we're already drowning in homework, and now Gretchen is too busy with her clubs and new friends to help us out."

"Yeah it does whomp, but we can cram in a study sesh before we go to the movies tonight."

"Actually I got an extra dance class today, I'll get out just in time for the movie though."

"Another dance class? Didn't you just have an extra dance class yesterday?"

"No Thursdays are part of my new dance schedule. Today is just an extra class cuz we're learning a new routine."

"Okay well I guess I'll meet you at the movie theater, later Spinelli." Tj waved goodbye to his friend, she walked in the other direction towards the dance studio.

"See you tonight Teej!"

Tj kicked a can during the short but lonely walk home from school. He has always lived 3 houses down from Spinelli, and they've been walking to school together since kindergarten, it was rare that either of them walked home alone.

"Hi honey, how was school?" Janice Detweiler greeted her son when he walked in.

"Fine, I'm going to the movies tonight with Spinelli."

"That's nice, what show are you going to see?"

"Remember the Titans."

"Oh I remember Vince was talking about that, is he going with you guys?"

"Nah he's been too busy with every sports team the school has to offer. The whole gang has been busy with clubs. Luckily Spinelli isn't into any clubs, I'd be bored senseless if she wasn't around."

"Well all this spare time alone will give you plenty of time to get ahead on your studies." Janice winked at her son, hoping to encourage him to better his grades. Tj was always an average student. He usually came home with all B's and C's, every once in a while he'd get a little lazy and come home with a D. Hopefully that will change this year.

"Yeah I was actually wondering if you could help me with my math homework." Tj emptied his backpack and sorted through the loose papers in search of said homework.

"Why did I buy you all those folders if you're not going to use them? Honey a little organization goes a long way."

"I think I left my homework in my locker, I'm going to run over to the school before they lock up." Tj ignored his mother's advice poured the items back into his bag as Janice shook her head. "I'll be back soon."

Tj finally found his math homework hidden in his home economics book, he tossed it carelessly in his bag and started walking towards the exit. He walked past the gym, loud up beat music filled the hall but that's not what caught Tj's attention. He peeked through the gym doors to see a tiny figure being thrown up into the air. The figure's feet landed gracefully in the hands of another girl. Tj rubbed his eyes, a little confused at what he just saw. The figure put her hands on her hips and smiled proudly, as the music was cut short.

"Not bad girls, we still need a little work though, I'll see you back here on Thursday, don't come back if you're not going to practice though!"

Tj walked in the gym as some of the girls were exiting.

"Extra dance class huh?" He spoke up when he saw a familiar face.

"Tj? What're you doing here man!" Spinelli blushed when she saw Tj, the last thing she wanted was for her friends to catch her here.

"I forgot my homework, I thought you told the cheerleaders that you only tried out to prove something to the Ashley's?"

"Yeah that's what I was just doing." Spinelli was a terrible liar.

"Then why are you wearing a cheerleading uniform?" Tj pointed to her clothes. She was wearing a crop top with the schools initials on it and a matching short skirt in the schools colors.

"Spinelli you forgot your pom poms!" Ashley T tossed a pair of pom poms to Spinelli who caught them and her face continued to redden.

"Okay you caught me."

"So what made you change your mind? Last week you were just cussing at the cheerleaders and calling them prissy powder puffs, why would you want to join them!?"

"It's really just glorified dancing, I was hoping to get more dance practices in anyway."

"Aren't you worried that this will kill your reputation?"

"I'll just prove that I'm still the toughest by kicking your butt." Spinelli waved her fist at Tj.

"Okay okay so you'll be able to save your rep. This whomps that you're going to be busy now too."

"Hey two spots just opened up on the football team, how bout you try out, you would practice the same time as the Cheerleaders so we won't loose anytime together, and we'll get to see Vince more often."

"That's not a bad idea Spinelli. You think I can make the team?"

"Sure you're a decent player, you just gotta practice. I'll help ya." Spinelli tackled him catching Tj off guard, sending the two of them to the ground.

"Thanks for looking out Spin." Tj laughed and put her into a headlock and the two wrestled until the janitor kicked them out so he could lock up the school.

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Thursday came along eventually, Tj and Spinelli sat on the bleachers by the football field waiting for tryouts to begin.

Vince spotted them hanging out and ran over to join them.

"Tj, Spinelli, what's up guys?"

"Hey man." Spinelli high-fived him.

"Not much. How have you been, we never see you anymore!" Tj stood up and shook Vince's hand.

"Yeah sorry I haven't been around much. All these teams are keeping me busy, but boy are they keeping me in shape! My game is even better than ever. So what're you guys doing here?"

"I'm trying out, isn't it obvious." Spinelli smiled.

"Sounds more believable than when you tried out for cheerleading." Vince laughed at the memory of her trying out and beating the odds.

Spinelli and Tj looked at each other with sly smiles. If only he knew.

"I'm trying out." Tj confessed.

"Cool man. Well we're about to get started, Spinelli there's two vacant spots on the team you should tryout, I think you'd have a better chance than Tj. No offense man."

"None taken."

"Nah thanks man, I gotta get to cheerleading practice." Spinelli left, with Vince and Tj cracking up, for different reasons obviously.

"Man that will never get old, well come on buddy lets see what you're made of."


	6. Chapter 6

"Don't forget you can always check your work by graphing the equation, X will equal the variables that cross through the X-axis."

"Man I really appreciate this Gretch, me and Tj are barely scraping by."

"Tj and I" Gretchen corrected Spinelli's grammar much to her annoyance.

"Tj and I!... are barely scraping by, hopefully I'll be able to relay this tutoring sesh to him."

Spinelli caught up with Gretchen at school earlier that day and expressed her need of a tutor, despite Gretchen's hectic schedule she was able to fit Spinelli in for a sleepover. The two sat pajama clad in Spinelli's bedroom surrounded by numerous incomplete math worksheets, salty snacks, and boxes of pizza.

"I feel terrible that I can't tutor him myself, but I've been so..." Gretchen was cut off by Spinelli.

"Busy? Busy busy, everybody in this gang is always busy now."

"Well extra cirricular activites are an important aspect..."

Spinelli threw some cheese balls at Gretchen's face to stop her lecture.

"It's not just the clubs and teams! Everyone's making new friends, our gang's not even a gang anymore. You're always dorking out with your friends from the smarty pants clubs, Mikey has a ton of new friends, No one's got a fropping clue where Gus is, and just the other day I saw Vince hanging out at Floppy Burger with Lawson!"

"That's typical for kids who grow up and go to new schools- As for Vince and Lawson; I doubt they're actually friends they are on the football team together, it was probably just a team thing."

"Okay maybe they're not friends, anyways it still feels like all of us are drifting. The only person I've been hanging out with lately is Tj."

"Isn't that what you want?"

"What is that supposed to mean!?" Spinelli was taken back by Gretchen's question but wasn't able to get an answer out of her as Tj barged into the room.

"Hey ladies, how's the studying going?"

"Way to knock." Spinelli put her hands on her hips and pretended to be mad.

"Sorry. Heh nice pajamas Spinelli." Tj laughed and blushed slightly. He still wasn't used to Spinelli's slight change in wardrobe. Her rose colored silky pajama's and matching fuzzy slippers didn't exactly match her tough guy attitude, and if it wasn't for her leather jacket and boots her new daily attire would contradict it as well.

"Shut up, what're you doing here?"

"You left your jacket at my place earlier."

"But you're coming over tomorrow, you could've brought it then."

"I could've, anyways I brought you girls some banana splits from Kelso's." He handed Spinelli the bag from Kelso's and the look of mock anger disappeared from her face and was replaced with a smile.

Gretchen's reaction didn't exactly mirror Spinelli's.

"You brought us dessert but you couldn't bring your backpack so you could study?" Gretchen raised an eyebrow.

"I also brought fudge." Tj tried to lighten the mood, however it didn't help. Gretchen cares more about school and gets slightly annoyed when others don't respect academics.

"Well I'm going to continue tutoring Spinelli. I highly recommend you take notes, we still have a lot to cover."

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 **El_Yankee_Fantastico** has joined the group

 **GuSpGrIsWaLd** has joined the group

GuSpGrIsWaLd _:_ Oh hey Vince and Tj, sup guys?

El_Yankee_Fantastico: nm,u?

GuSpGrIsWaLd: nm.

KingTj: got something important to talk about, ganna wait till the rest of the gang enters the chat room.

 **thewingerdingersinger** has joined the group

thewingerdingersinger: Hello dear members of my buddy list.

GuSpGrIsWaLd: hey Mikey

 **YoYoItIsGretchen** has joined the group

KingTj: cool we r all here, how we all doin?

El_Yankee_Fantastico: What about Spinelli?

KingTj: She's sitting right next to me, she says hi.

YoYoItIsGretchen: Shouldn't you guys be studying for that math test instead of hanging out?

KingTj: We r studying, we r takin a break cuz I came up with a great prank for the pep rally on Friday and I need everyone's help.

YoYoItIsGretchen: *Are *Taking *Because

El_Yankee_Fantastico: Gretch we've told ya b4, all gramma rules get thrown out when ya enter an AIM chat room.

El_Yankee_Fantastico: ehhh I dunno Tj, you and I shouldn't risk anything that will get us kicked off the football team.

 **GuSpGrIsWaLd** has left the group

KingTj: k Gus, it was nice talking to you? ? ? ?

YoYoItIsGretchen: That was strange, he usually says bye before signing off.

wingerdingersinger: That is odd, he left the chat room but he is still online.

El_Yankee_Fantastico: We need to help him think of a cooler screen name.

KingTj: Anyways, Vince trust me this plan is fool proof.

wingerdingersinger: Tj I have to agree with Vince. I was chosen to sing the national anthem at the pep rally and I don't want to loose out on that opportunity either.

KingTj: Well what bout you Gretch? u r not in the pep rally, u in?

YoYoItIsGretchen: I may not be in the pep rally, but I am on the mathletes team and I don't want to risk getting kicked out of school for committing crimes against the school.

KingTj: It's not a crime. It's a harmless prank just like we used to pull all the time in elementary school, you know the good old days.

YoYoItIsGretchen: I'm sorry Tj. Anyways I have to go, I have some STUDYING to do. Hint Hint. Good night, and good luck on your test.

 **YoYoItIsGretchen** has left the group

wingerdingersinger: I also have to study for the test, I've been struggling with math too. I'll see you guys tomorrow.

 **wingerdingersinger** has left the group

El_Yankee_Fantastico: Don't do somethin you'll regret man. Get some studyin done, and get some rest for the game tomorrow night.

El_Yankee_Fantastico: Oh by the way Chuco is havin the team over after school.

KingTj: I can't go, I'm chillin with Spinelli after school.

El_Yankee_Fantastico: mmhmm. Ttyl.

 **El_Yankee_Fantastico** has left the group.

Tj signed off Aol Instant Messaging and turned to Spinelli with a look of defeat on his face.

"Teej if you want to hang out with Vince and the team tomorrow you can, we can hangout after the game."

"Nah he only invited me because it's a team thing. If he actually wanted to hangout he would've made the effort to."

"You still optimistic about the gang getting back together?"

Tj took his hat off and ran his hands through his hair.

"I don't know anymore. I thought everyone would get used to middle school and be able to balance homework, studying, after school activities, and friends, but I guess not."

"Yeah we're already five weeks into the school year, if the gang was to get back together I think it would have happened by now."

"I think you're right Spinelli."

"So much for that promise we all made you that last week of summer."

"You kept it though." Tj pulled her into a hug.

"a promise is a promise, it's part of the kids unwritten code."

Spinelli broke the hug, Tj looked at her confused and a little upset.

"Come on Teej we really do need to study."


	7. Chapter 7

Thanks for the reviews "Someone" "Guest" and "Classic Vision" :)

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Yelling and cheering could be heard from the guys locker room and a crowd gathered in the center of the room. The football players seemed to be in some sort of huddle. Sounds typical on game day.

"You made me look like an idiot!"

Vince yelled in Tj's face as he shoved him against the lockers. Tj pushed Vince back and he fell to the ground, he quickly got back on his feet and threw a fist at Tj. Tj was able to react quickly and catch the fist before it could make contact with his face.

"We're on the same team Vince!"

Tj was thrown at the lockers again, at this point their team mates started the "Fight fight fight" chant.

"Okay break it up! Break it up!" An older man pushed himself through the sea of football players and ripped Vince off of Tj.

"LASALLE!" The coach waved his index finger in Vince's face. One more stunt like that and you're off the team!"

He turned to the rest of the team who were still gathered around Tj and Vince. "Same goes for all of you! We're all on the same team here. We fight together not against each other, you hear me?"

"Yes sir." A few voices mumbled.

"Now get changed and get out of here!"

The team started to disperse from the group 'huddle'. Vince and Tj had a brief stare down.

Lawson grabbed Vince's arm and led him towards the exit.

"Calm down man. Don't be La-stupid, the team needs you."

Vince scoffed. "Do they?"

Once Vince was out of sight, the coach went over to Tj who was sitting on a bench with his head in his hands. The coach sat down next to him and put his hand on Tj's shoulder.

"You okay kid?"

Tj nodded.

"What was that scuffle about?"

Tj shrugged. Vince may be a jerk now, but Tj ain't no tattle tale, it's part of the kids code of honor.

"You played a good game kid. That last minute plan you came up with showed some real quarter back potential, you seem to have a real knack for leadership."

"So I've been told." He muttered. The coach picked up on Tj's bad mood and stood up to leave.

"Well if you have any more game winning plans like that you know where to find me."

"Will do sir." Tj gathered his stuff, left the locker room and headed off towards the concession stand to meet up with Spinelli.

He took a short cut under the bleachers to avoid talking to any of his team mates about the game, the fight with Vince, or anything at all. The lights from the field didn't completely illuminate the space under the bleachers, Tj couldn't see too far ahead of him but he didn't think he could get into too much trouble under the bleachers.

"Ouch" Tj heard a guys voice shout.

"Oh Sorry...Gus?" Tj took Gus's hand and helped him to his feet.

"Oh uh hey Tj, what's up?" Gus nervously re-positioned the glasses on his face.

"Gus why are you hiding under the bleachers?"

"Oh I was just... looking for my glasses."

"They're on your face Gus." Tj raised an eyebrow knowing he was being lied to. "Is something wrong? Are you hiding from someone?"

"Nah I'm fine! I dropped my glasses when I was sitting on the bleachers and then... I came down here to find them... and then I found them and you found me... and here we are."

"Okay well Spinelli and I are going to Kelso's to celebrate, you wanna come?"

"Oh I can't my dad is picking me up... and now that I found my glasses I can go find him, I'll uh see you later Tj."

He laughed as Gus ran in the wrong direction of the parking lot. _"That was strange, what's going on with that kid?"_

Tj reached the other side of the bleachers and looked around for Spinelli. He found her talking to Hustler kid.

"Detweiler great job tonight, and thank you. This game generated a lot of betting. You really shook things up, nobody expected that last minute touch down you made."

"Yeah I lost 5 bucks cuz of it." Spinelli crossed her arms.

"Here consider this a commission." Hustler kid shook Tj's hand and slipped him a twenty dollar bill. He left before Tj could even try to give it back.

Tj shook his head and slipped the money in his wallet. He and Spinelli started walking towards Kelso's.

"How's your wrist?"

"Fine I guess. Worse comes to worse I'll be able to cream the Ashley's with my left hand. I'm just embarrassed that I fell in front of everyone during the half-time cheer." Spinelli blushed and crossed her arms. Tj took note and put his hand on her shoulder.

"Don't be embarrassed, it was pretty clear that they dropped you."

"They're still mad that I beat out Ashley Q. in tryouts, I bet that's why they dropped me."

"Knowing the Ashley's that's not unlikely. Just don't get into a fight or anything, you don't want to get kicked off the cheerleading squad."

"Drill team." Spinelli corrected him.

"Call it whatever you want, you're still a cheerleader." Tj grinned, and Spinelli shoved him playfully with her good hand.

"Ha did you see Vince's face when he saw me in my uniform this morning." The two of them stopped and laughed.

"Ha yeah I saw a lot of people react like that. You got to admit, 'Spinelli the cheerleader' is a pretty funny sight."

Obviously it was funny because their peers aren't used to seeing Spinelli do girly things, but the way Spinelli expressed her tough attitude while cheerleading was the most comical part about it. She was wearing her cheerleading uniform and like the rest of the squad had her hair up in high pigtails tied with ribbons of the schools colors- red and white. To remind everyone that she is still the toughest she wore her leather jacket and combat boots.

They stood there laughing for another minute until Tj remembered something. The smile slowly disappeared from his face. "Vince and I got into a fight tonight, he's pretty angry that I scored more touch downs than him."

"But you're on the same team!"

"That's what I said. He thinks I made a fool out of him, like everyone expected him to score all those touch downs."

"That's Vince though. He always has to be the best at everything, he always has to be the hero."

"That's what I told him, then things got kinda physical."

"What!?"

The two continued to walk towards Kelso's as Tj told her the event that happened in the locker room, they ordered shakes and sat down at the counter as Vince and the football team walked in.

"Uh Mr. Kelso can we get those shakes to go?"

Mr. Kelso handed Tj and Spinelli some to-go cups, he heard that Tj won the game so he gave them some doughnuts on the house. They started walking towards their street but stopped at a familiar place. Tj and Spinelli smiled at each other and ran towards old rusty. Tj started to climb the jungle gym and realized that Spinelli was having some issues due to her wrist injury from earlier that night.

"Need any help Spin?"

"I ain't no wimp." She continued to climb up slowly. Once she reached the top step she struggled to pull herself up, Tj took her arms and pulled her the rest of the way up. She gave him an annoyed look.

He rolled his eyes at her. "There's been enough fighting, drama, and injuries tonight, you can kick my butt for helping you later."

They looked around the playground and thought back to the years they spent there.

"Man I miss this place."

He handed Spinelli a doughnut and took one for himself. "Me too Spin, I can't believe we all met here 7 years ago."

"Except Gus, remember when you made that plan to get everyone to stop calling him 'new kid'... Where has that kid been lately?"

"I actually saw him tonight. He was hiding under the bleachers after the game, he was being really weird about it."

"What a weirdo."

The two remembered all the good and the bad times they had at Third Street Elementary; the time they knocked the statue of Thaddeus T. Third The Fifth, the time the Ashley's gave everyone ratings, and the time Menlo and Randall teamed up to rule the playground.

"If it wasn't for your pranking and scheming we would've never survived at this joint."

He grinned proudly. "Yeah I played a lot of good pranks at this old school."

"You sure did, remember when you got the title of prankster prince?"

"Yeah look at me now, I haven't pulled a good prank in a while. I don't deserve the title anymore."

"Jeeze middle school has not been good to us, we don't have friends anymore, and you've turned into a real Negative-Nancy."

"I'm Sorry?"

"It's not your fault, you don't have the great friends you use to have to back you up with your schemes."

"No but what if those great old friends of ours became one of my schemes."

"What?"

"If we could get the gang here some how they'd probably start reminiscing like us, and maybe they'd wanna be friends again."

"That's a great idea Tj."

"Vince is mad at me about the game so I need you to get him here, and Gretchen too. I'll get Mikey and Gus here. We'll plan it out this weekend."

"I'm starting to get cold, you wanna go catch something on the boob tube?"

Tj nodded. He put his jacket around Spinelli's shoulders, and they headed towards Tj's house


	8. Chapter 8

"Someone" Chapter 7 was definitely my favorite to write...so far

"NatalieJ-101" Thanks for reviewing! I'm having a blast writing about Tj and Spinelli's friendship

Glad you guys are enjoying the story so far :P

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"You gotta calm down Spin." Tj dragged Spinelli into study hall against her will.

"They had it coming!" Spinelli growled back at him.

Tj had just stopped Spinelli from attacking the Ashleys after a confrontation with them in the hallway. They were still teasing Spinelli because she "fell" during one of the cheers at the football game. Spinelli was ready to prove that she could fight them one handed, but as always Tj was there to stop her from getting into too much trouble.

Tj put his hands on her shoulders and stared into her eyes.

"Don't get into trouble, don't get kicked out of school or off the squad. If you want to get revenge on them then the prankster prince is at your service, but you gotta play by my rules and calm down. Kay?"

Spinelli broke eye contact, looked down, and nodded. Tj smiled back. He walked over to his seat and started on his homework. Spinelli took out a notebook and started jotting down notes. Tj looked up just as Gus walked in and handed the teacher a late pass.

"Okay I came up with a few ideas to get..." Spinelli stopped mid sentence when she saw Tj's jaw drop. She followed his eyes which led to Gus finding an empty seat in their class.

"Yo Gus!" Spinelli took her stuff and settled into the seat in front of Gus. Where have you been man?"

"Oh hey Spinelli, I've been around."

Obviously she wasn't satisfied with that answer, she was about to rephrase her question when Tj moved next to her and greeted Gus.

"I thought you transferred out of this class?"

"No, I transferred out of our history class, but not study hall I've just been busy." There's that infamous excuse again, Spinelli and Tj rolled their eyes. "Um how have you guys been?"

"We've been keeping busy too, but we miss the gang. Are you able to hangout some time?"

"Well... I could probably fit you guys in sometime."

"Cool, Spinelli and I are trying to get the whole gang together to hang maybe Saturday afternoon?"

"Possibly... I'll get back to you guys when I look at my schedule."

"Is model U.N really that demanding?" Spinelli wasn't actually interested in the question she just asked. She dozed off when Gus replied, and she found herself jotting more revenge plots down in her notebook while Gus and Tj conversed.

"Oh yeah Teej I had some ideas to get the Ashleys back." She handed Tj her notebook, he was instantly confused and couldn't figure out where the list began and where it ended.

"Dude what is this?" He finally asked.

"A list of revenge plots for the Ashleys."

"In what language?"

"What language do you think I'd write it in?"

"English would make sense, but this is definitely not English. You do know Italian, though it kinda looks like those hydro-pics that Gretchen told us about."

"Okay It's definitely not Italian and don't you mean Hieroglyphics? I don't know anything about those... It's just a little messy cuz I'm not that good at writing with my left hand."

After the accident at the football game Spinelli ended up with a sprained wrist. Over the weekend her parents took her to the doctor where she got a brace to help it heal. Unfortunately she's right-handed and that's just the wrist she sprained.

"So this what all your notes look like from today?" Tj laughed

"Um Maybe..." Spinelli shot him a dirty look as he continued to laugh. He did make an attempt to conceal his laughter, but it was just that- an attempt.

"Okay we can just make copies of my notes later." Tj crumpled up her notes and slam-dunked them in the trash can.

"You didn't take any notes today did you?"

"Nope."

Spinelli shook her head and the two of them laughed.

"Hey where'd Gus go?"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Yo Vince can we talk for a sec?" Spinelli tapped Vince's shoulder.

He excused himself from the football players lunch table and followed Spinelli out to the hallway. She stopped once they were out of sight and sound from any other student.

"What's going on Spinelli?"

"You busy Saturday?"

"Well Lawson and I..." She stopped him by putting a finger to his mouth.

"Yeah we gotta talk about that but first, Tj and I are trying to get the gang together to hang just for a couple of hours."

That's all Vince could stand to hear.

"Nuh-uh no way am I hanging out with him after what he did to me at the game on Friday!"

"He didn't do anything Vince."

"He was showing off!"

"How? By being a leader and coming up with a plan that led the team to victory?"

"Of course you would side with him." Vince walked away.

"What's that supposed to mean?" She shouted after him but he kept walking. "Vince! Vince!"

"So that didn't go too well huh?" Tj said from behind her. She jumped, startled at Tj's sudden appearance.

Tj tried not to laugh but couldn't help it. Spinelli rarely ever got scared so seeing her in this state was a real treat. He saw her cheeks flush with red, he wrapped his arm around her shoulders to show he apologizes.

"He's mad at me for sticking up for you."

"Yeah I caught that part, and he's not the only one mad at us."

"What're you talking about?

"I caught up with Gus while you were talking to Vince. I asked him why he ditched the rest of study hall, he said he couldn't stand listening to us plan our childish pranks."

"WHAT? What childish pranks?"

"Oh and get this, he thinks you're jealous of the Ashleys."

Spinelli looked at him confused, then started laughing.

"That kid's braces must be too tight! Why would I be jealous of the Ashleys? And why on earth would he care?"

"He didn't say."

"Ashley Q has been jealous of me ever since I beat her in drill team tryouts." Spinelli was starting to get angry, she had her fists clenched ready to put the hurt on someone. "That's why the Ashleys dropped me at the game and THAT'S why I want revenge."

Tj put a hand on her shoulder to calm her down. "Hey you don't need to tell me, I support you."

They started walking back to the cafeteria, they couldn't help but notice everyone staring and pointing at them.

"What the heck are you monkeys laughing at?" Spinelli yelled at no one in particular.

Tj shrugged. The cafeteria became silent at the ringing of the intercom.

"Will Theodore Detweiler and Ashley Spinelli come down to the principal's office, That is Theodore Detweiler and Ashley Spinelli to the principal's office. Thank you."

"Ugh now what?" Spinelli rolled her eyes, she and Tj turned around and walked to the office.

The cafeteria started cheering "Oooooooooo" mocking the two as if they were in trouble.

"My first trip to the principal's office at this school." Tj smiled slightly.

"And me without a camera."

"We haven't pulled any pranks yet this year so I can't imagine what he wants."

"Maybe Prickly tipped him off."

"Nah he and I left on good terms."

They arrived at the principal's office and knocked on the door. A tall balding man greeted them and told them to take a seat. When they entered the room they saw a familiar face sitting down.

"Mikey!?"


	9. Chapter 9

'Someone' Oh I can't wait till you see what I have in store for our characters haha. :p

Thanks for reviewing!

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Tj and Spinelli were walking home from school, both were extremely angry about the outcome of their visit to the principal's office. Tj couldn't wipe the scowl off his face and Spinelli was kicking everything that crossed her path; cans, leafs, the occasional road kill. Tj even had to sacrifice his own leg when Spinelli attempted to kick the tire of a parked car...while the owner was still in the car. They were in enough trouble as is.

Tj was the first one to speak up since leaving the school. "Well we have a few hours before our parents get home and we face eternal grounding, what do you wanna do?"

"How bout we find whoever framed us."

"I would love to Spinelli, but I wouldn't even know where to start. I don't know this school as well as I knew third street. I have no plan this time."

"This whomps, I can't believe we just got suspended for five days!" Spinelli went to kick a mailbox but was pulled away by Tj. He led her to the other side of the street to prevent her from trying it again.

"Especially for something we didn't do. Yeah I know our permanent records aren't the cleanest but never have we ever been cheaters."

"I can't believe Mikey actually believes that we stole the test answers. He's one of our oldest friends he should know that we're better than that."

"It is unbelievable, we lost three friends in one day."

"Well we still have one friend left."

"Yeah Gretchen can vouch for us. She tutored us she knows we were ready for that test."

"Maybe she can talk to the principal and Mr. Flynn."

"Well we're going to have to wait till school lets out to get in contact with her. Till then wanna go skip rocks at the pond to blow off some steam?"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Ugh I hate the library." Spinelli sighed as she and Tj entered the building.

"Me too, but Gretchen spends a lot of time here with her clubs. Now if I was the smartest kid in school where would I be?."

"If I was the smartest kid in school I still wouldn't spend my precious free time in the library."

"SHHHHH!" Spinelli and Tj jumped when they heard someone shush them. "Please hush your voices, you're in a library." A quiet voice scolded them.

"Oh hey library kid" Tj whispered. "Have you seen Gretchen Grundler around?"

"Hello Tj, hello Spinelli. Yes, Gretchen is here, she can often be found on the third floor in the science section."

"Thanks library kid." Spinelli forgot to whisper and was quietly reprimanded.

The only time Tj and Spinelli grace the library with their presence is if they have a report due, so it took them quite a while to find the science section. Tj got distracted in the science fiction section, apparently they started carrying a selection of vintage comic books. Spinelli looked around for a while and finally found Gretchen on the floor next to a large stack of books with one in her face. Spinelli sat down next to her and tapped her on the shoulder. Gretchen looked up, she didn't look too pleased that she was taken away from her studies.

"Hey." Spinelli whispered.

"Hi." Gretchen whispered back with a slight attitude.

"Sorry to interrupt your learning and junk, but me and Tj are in serious trouble."

"Tj and I." Gretchen corrected. Spinelli rolled her eyes.

"Now's not the time for a grammar lesson Gretch, we really need your help."

"I tried to help you!" Gretchen started to raise her voice. "I tutored you, I gave you study guides, I did everything but give you the answers. Apparently that wasn't good enough."

"What? You don't actually believe we stole the answers do you?"

"How else can you explain the fact that Mr. Flynn found one of your paper footballs in his office on the morning before the test." Gretchen placed her hands on her hips and raised her eyebrows. "You know you and Tj really shouldn't create contraband out of your signed notes to each other."

"We were framed!" Spinelli yelled and was shushed by everyone in the room. She whispered again. "Tj and I aren't cheaters, you know that."

"Well it doesn't sound too far fetched, especially noting your brothers' past."

That was it for Spinelli. She had never felt so betrayed by anyone in her life. She clenched her fists she needed to punch something right then and there. There was nothing around but books and Gretchen... She un-clenched her fist and pulled Gretchen up by her collar so she was face-to-face with Spinelli.

"You leave my brothers out of this!" She shouted in Gretchen's face, ignoring the rules of the library. "You don't know anything about them!"

Gretchen was shaking, she's seen Spinelli angry before but never at her. For once she found herself completely speechless. She remained in Spinelli's grip with a pair of piercing eyes giving her a death stare. Who knows how long she would of been stuck in that position if the Librarian didn't kick them out. They were banned from the library for five days.

"Funny isn't that the same duration of your suspension?" Gretchen spat out as she walked away.

Spinelli was about to go on the attack again when Tj grabbed her wrist.

"OW!" Spinelli pulled back and held her wounded wrist with her good hand.

"Oh Geeze! I'm sorry Spinelli." He put his hand on her shoulder. "Listen I know you're angry, I am too but we need to..." Tj stopped when he heard a sniffle from Spinelli. "Spin?"

She didn't reply, she was facing away from him with her head down. He walked over to her and tilted her head up revealing a tear struck girl. His mouth dropped in shock. He only saw Spinelli cry twice before; once back in second grade when her brother Joey went to prison, and the second time was in third grade when her other brother Vito went to prison.

"I'm sorry Spinelli!" He wrapped her in a hug. "I didn't mean to hurt you, I forgot your wrist was sprained! I'll run to the store and grab you some ice, stay right here!"

He let go of her and started towards the nearest convenience store.

"Tj you didn't hurt me!" She looked back down at her feet. Tj walked back over to her and stared at her for a minute before wrapping her in another hug. He held her as a few more tears escaped.

Without releasing her, he led her over to a bench so they could sit down. "Then why are you crying?"

"Gretchen thinks that just cuz my brothers have been to prison that I must be a hoodlum too." She continued to cry into his shoulder.

"She knows that's not true, I know that's not true, but most importantly... "He stopped and pointed at her. "YOU know that's not true."

"I just hate when the subject of my brothers come up. No one outside our family has a clue what happend, or what it's like."

He began to rub her back. "I'm sorry Spinelli. I wish I knew what to say, but like you said no one knows what it's like. Whenever you want to talk about it, I'm all ears."

Eventually her tears started to lighten up. She pulled her head away from Tj's shoulder and looked up at him. He flashed her a smile and wiped the remaining tears from her face. He kept his arms around her and they found themselves in a brief staring contest.

"Uh we don't have too much time before our parents get home." Spinelli spoke up.

"Oh yeah... I forgot we are in a lot of trouble." He finally released her and helped her to her feet. "Well let me buy you some ice cream before we meet our doom."

She smiled at Tj "Thanks Teej. And if you tell anyone that I cried and shared my feelings, I will end you."


	10. Chapter 10

While writing this story I realized that Mikey isn't an easy character to peg. As I said at the beginning of this story, I'm not a writer... and I'm definitely no poet... So here it is. Please let me know what you guys think. Like I said in the first chapter I can take the flames.

:)

NatalieJ-101: Glad you're enjoying the story. I love writing the Tj/Spinelli scenes... all I can say is there is more to come :P. I don't wanna spoil anything so that's all I'm going to say. :D

Someone: Yeah you know you're in trouble if Gretchen doesn't believe you.

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Mikey's POV

"I understand Mrs. McGee, thank you again for the amazing opportunity."

 _I bid Mrs. McGee a final farewell, and left her office feeling faint. There is a whole where my heart was. Oh what could possibly fill the void? Everything I've been preparing for since the fourth grade is all in vain. Singing has been my life ever since Mrs. Solomone helped me find my voice, and now just a short three years later- it's over._

 _I was accused of cheating on a math test last week. I'll admit things didn't look good. My grades in math had been atrocious, but I realized that, made the effort and sought help from a tutor. The B I received was an honest reflection of my hard work, but a few students stole the test answers and because my test grades had a dramatic turn around it was assumed that I had cheated. I testified on my behalf, but unfortunately the evidence was not in my favor. The choir instructor Mrs. McGee is very strict when it comes to academic dishonesty, thus my time with the choir has come to an end._

"Hey Mikey, what's with the long face?" _I didn't hear_ _Gretchen come up behind me, she startled me a little. I'm glad to see her though._

"Oh Sweet Gretchen, thank you I could really use a friend."

"What's wrong?" _She put her hand on my back and led me away from the busy hallway to a quiet corridor. Her kind gentle nature acted as an invitation to open up and express my feelings._

"I've been kicked out of choir." _I buried my head in my hands._

 _Gretchen wrapped me into a hug and cried out,_ "Oh Mikey."

"The school thinks I bought one of those copies of the stolen math test from Tj and Spinelli, but I've done nothing of the sort." _She broke our hug and crossed her arms. I hope the news didn't upset her, she takes academia pretty seriously._

"I heard about that, they were suspended for five days. I spent hours tutoring them and they didn't take it seriously at all. I'm so angry at them!" _Luckily no one was around because Gretchen had started to raise her voice. I patted her back, she still looked upset but at least she stopped yelling._

"Well I'm not angry at them, but I am disappointed. Academic dishonesty is one thing but who knows what kind of life that will lead them to live."

 _Gretchen's eyes widened as if she remembered something. She opened her mouth to respond, but as quick as the thought came it disappeared. We sat in silence for a minute. The school bell rang signaling the beginning of 5th period, but Gretchen didn't even flinch. I was about to remind her of her perfect attendance record when she spoke up._

"I heard a rumor that Vince and Tj got into a physical altercation at the game last week." _A fight!? I couldn't believe my ears! Tj and Vince were always the ones stopping Spinelli from getting into fights, what could they possibly be doing fighting each other?_ "I didn't want to buy into a rumor, so I confronted Vince about it. He didn't have much time to talk but he was able to confirm it."

"I don't believe it."

"I know, boy have they changed." _Gretchen continued, but something caught my eye. A hand waved at me from a nearby class room. I waved back and smiled. Ahhh Tara. Uh-oh I wasn't paying attention, what did she say? She stopped talking, did she ask a question? What do I do? Well honesty is the best policy..._

"Beg pardon?" _I thought she was going to be upset that I wasn't listening, but she just smiled shyly._

"Mikey..." _She put her hand on my shoulder._ "You are completely smitten with that girl." _Wait a minute she didn't just accuse me of..._

"What? No? She's just... Hey is that Randall?" _I pointed in the other direction in an attempt to distract her. Of course Gretchen is no fool, but I am, because I ran. I'll have to send her a thank you card later._

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"First day back, this is going to be interesting." Tj said less than enthusiastically as they walked into school.

"I'm just happy not to be grounded anymore. My dad taped all the wrestling matches that I've missed, I have 7 hours of tapes waiting for me."

"And I'm glad that we don't have to sneak around and climb trees into each others rooms or talk to each other through walkie-talkies."

Their parents were obviously not too pleased that their children were suspended from school for a week. Each of them were grounded for the duration of their suspension; no friends, no TV, but they had plenty of homework to keep them occupied. Luckily they were able to find a few ways to hangout during their punishment.

"I don't know I kinda liked the walkie-talkie part, if you don't call than my mom can't answer the phone- thus denying her the opportunity to embarass me." Spinelli smiled victoriously.

"Aww but that's when your mom shares the really juicy stuff." Spinelli's face turned red with embarrassment.

"Wait what has she told you?"

Tj didn't respond he just laughed, then patted her back to cheer her up. They reached their first class- math. They stopped at the door and stared at each other.

"Here we go." Tj slowly opened the door, thoughts of just turning around, running home and never returning to school popped into his head. When they finally made it through the doorway all eyes were on them. This was normal for students who walk in late, but Tj and Spinelli weren't late.

"Well well look who's back."

"What do you want Randall?" Spinelli rolled her eyes, it was way too early for his crap.

"Oh I don't want anything, but some of our classmates might want a piece of you guys."

"Excuse me?" Tj pushed up against Randal, invading his personal space. Randall didn't respond to the threat, he only grinned as if he had the upper hand.

"Because of you two everyone who got an above average test grade has to retake the test."

"We didn't do it Randall."

"Oh sure, it's just like how Spinelli's brother didn't rob that convenience store."

"Why I outta!" Spinelli waved her fist and made a move towards Randall.

"Spinelli don't!" Tj showed her to her seat and forced her to sit down. He eyed her real quick to make sure she wasn't going to have another emotional break down, then turned his attention back to the snitch. "Shut it Randall! You have no idea what you're talking about!"

"Did you guys hear, your little stunt caused your friend Mikey to get kicked out of choir!"

"Alright Randall let's take this outside!" Sounds like something Spinelli would say but that was Tj. He grabbed Randall by the collar and started to drag him towards the door.

"Hey if I can't beat Randall up than you can't." Spinelli put her hand on Tj's shoulder. God that was backwards, normally Tj is stopping Spinelli from getting into fights. He released Randall from his grip.

Randall fixed his collar and walked back to his seat with a smug look on his face. "You've really been into fighting lately huh Detweiler?"

"Good Morning!" Mr. Flynn greated the class. He put his brief case down on his desk, opened it and shuffled through its contents. The class started to goof off, though Tj and Spinelli just sat back quietly in their seats to avoid getting in anymore trouble. Mr. Flynn finally found what he was searching for, he placed a stack of papers on his desk and walked over to the chalk board. He picked up a piece of chalk and scribbled something on the board.

"Pop Quiz!" He shouted and the class groaned in response. He picked up the stack of papers and distributed them to each student. "We're going to see a lot more of these to assure everyone is learning the material, if you fail two in a row you will be required to stay after school twice a week until you pass a quiz."

Mr. Flynn continued, but Tj and Spinelli couldn't focus on what he was saying, their attention was on their peers who were shooting them dirty looks.

"Ugh it's going to be a long day." Tj whispered to Spinelli.


	11. Chapter 11

StillSomeone: You're right things definitely don't look good for Spinelli and Tj

AstronomerAlways: Hehe I love when people speculate the ending. :P We should find out soon-ish who framed them.

Thanks for reviewing guys!

* * *

"POOKIE! It's already 7:30 you're going to be late!" Flo yelled as she shook her daughter in an attempt to wake her up for school.

Spinelli only responded by groaning. She buried herself under all the pillows, blankets and stuffed animals that she could find to avoid being dragged away from the warmth and comfort of her bed.

"ASHLEY FUNICELLO SPINELLI! If you don't get your butt out of bed and down stairs by 8 o'clock- than you will be grounded for two weeks this time!" Flo opened the curtains allowing sunlight into the room, causing more groaning from her daughter. "Considering your birthday is next weekend I'd highly recommend the first option."

Flo left the room to go finish preparing breakfast but Spinelli stopped her before she could get too far.

"Mom!" Spinelli whined. "I don't feel good!"

"Pookie..." Flo sat down on Spinelli's bed and pulled the blankets and pillows away from her face. "I know you had a bad day at school yesterday, but hiding from your problems is not going to solve them."

"No mom... I really don't feel good." Spinelli curled up into a fetal position and clutched her stomach.

Flo placed a hand on her forehead. "Well you don't feel warm."

"It's not a fever, it's my guts."

"Well I'll get you some Tylenol, and then you really need to get ready for school." Flo kissed her on the forehead and left. Spinelli barley managed to crawl out of bed. She stumbled towards the bathroom with her arms wrapped around her stomach, she hated how strict her mother was when it came to skipping school.

Spinelli hadn't even made it halfway through her morning routine, when she ran out of her room yelling for her mom.

"The Tylenol is on your nightstand Pookie, come on now it's already 7:45."

"Um Mom... do you have any ttt-tampons?" Spinelli stuttered.

Spinelli winced when she heard her father spit out his coffee. She hoped that was a reaction to something he read in the newspaper.

"Oh Pookie!" Flo walked over to Spinelli and hugged her. Spinelli rolled her eyes. "Did you start you menstrual cycle?"

"What else would I use a tampon for? She instantly regretted the volume in which she questioned that, she saw her father run out of his room, down the stairs, and out the front door... in his pajamas.

"I should have a few left, take what I have and I'll run out and get some more." Flo looked down at her daughter and brushed her hair out of her face. "Wow you're really growing up."

Spinelli groaned in disgust.

"Go grab the tampons from my bathroom, take a Tylenol and relax for a little while. I'll bring you to school when your cramps go away."

Spinelli thanked her mom and went to grab the object in question. She locked herself in the bathroom, took a long hot shower and then tried to figure out how to use the tampons. She spent more time cursing at god for making her a girl than she spent reading the directions on the box. Once she finished she took a Tylenol, crawled back into bed and fell back asleep.

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Spinelli was able to convince her mom to let her stay home the rest of the day, Flo insisted on staying with her but Spinelli assured her she could take care of herself. She caught a few more hours of sleep, then made her way to the living room for some terrible day time television. The doorbell rang during the price is right, Spinelli peeked out the window to see Tj standing at the door with his backpack on, he must of came over directly from school.

Spinelli groaned but not from the pain of the cramps. She didn't want to explain her absence to Tj, she needed some time to come up with a decent lie. The doorbell rang again. She ignored it and returned to her spot on the couch. She hated lying to Tj but guys just don't understand these things. The situation was really making her miss Gretchen. She remembered how Gretchen tried to help her out with her last bout of puberty.

xxx FLASHBACK TO THE 5TH GRADE xxx

"Aww man these are all so girly."

"Spinelli no one is going to see them. I doubt any clothing store is going to have any that match your style, there probably isn't much of a market for leather bras."

Spinelli smiled, Gretchen knew exactly what she wanted. "Well where the heck does Madonna shop?

Gretchen laughed. "You know if you find some leather pants I might just be able to fashion a bra out of them, that way you don't have to waste your time plucking the rhinestone and feathers off of Madonna's."

The girls continued to joke about the awkward experience of buying their first bras. Spinelli had started to develop recently, Gretchen hadn't shown any signs of starting puberty yet, so she came along for support and so Spinelli didn't have to go through the traumatic experience with her mother.

"Even if I find one that I like what would I do with it?" Spinelli's question sent Gretchen into another round of laughter.

"What do you mean? Are you not going to wear them?"

"I mean what do I do, how do I know which one is my size?"

"Well I imagine you would do the same thing that you do with other articles of clothing... you try them on."

"So that means other people have probably tried these on? That's gross! I don't want my boobs touching places where other girls boobs have been."

"You could try it on over your shirt."

"I suppose."

"Lets grab one of every size and head over to the dressing room." Gretchen plucked a bra off of just about every rack in the women's department.

Gretchen tossed the pile into Spinelli's arms. "Geeze Gretch we're going to be here all day."

"Come on the sooner you get it over with the sooner we can go to the arcade."

Spinelli started walking towards the dressing rooms. She couldn't really see over the pile of bras, so it was no surprise that she bumped into something and lost her balance. She found herself on the floor with the pile of bras spilled on her and around her. She clenched her eyes shut. This had to be her most embarrassing moment yet. Then again maybe no one noticed. She opened her eyes expecting to see Gretchen rolling on the floor laughing, but instead Gretchen was standing at her head looking down at her with a look of concern on her face. She realized that Gretchen wasn't the only body standing over her. To her left stood Vince and Gus, and to her right was Mikey and of course Tj.

Spinelli shrieked.

"You okay Spinelli?" Tj asked and tried to cover the smile on his face.

She didn't respond, she couldn't. She looked around at the guys in the group, they had lost it at that point even Tj couldn't hide his laughter. Gretchen finally offered her a hand.

"No thanks Gretchen, just leave me here to die." She closed her eyes and found herself being lifted back to her feet. She opened her eyes and found herself in Tj's arms. When she dreamed of these moments Tj wasn't wearing a double d sized bra where is red hat was supposed to be.

"Spinelli, I think you dropped this." Tj grinned as he pulled the bra off his head and handed it to Spinelli. All four guys roared with laughter, even Gretchen couldn't help but giggle.

She didn't hold back when she punched Tj in the arm.

She grabbed Gretchen and dragged her to exit.

"Wait Spinelli!" Tj yelled behind her.

She turned around slowly and crossed her arms. Tj was pointing at the ground. Spinelli didn't understand the motion, she looked at Gretchen who just shrugged. She wasn't in the mood for anymore of Tj's shenanigans grabbed Gretchen's arm again and walked over to the exit. As soon as they reached the door the alarm went off and the guys began to snicker again.

"Um excuse me little girl you have a brazier stuck to your boot, I'm going to need that back." A department store worker pointed to Spinelli's feet.

Spinelli felt heat rush to her face. She untangled the bra from her boot and threw it at the worker, then took Gretchen's hand and ran.

"Oh my god! Gretch they're never going to let me live that down!"

"Definitely not."

xxxx END FLASH BACK xxxx

Spinelli cringed as she reminisced her most embarrassing moment. Gretchen told her that guys mature later than girls, but she questioned whether or not Tj would ever mature. She might just have to ignore him for a week.


	12. Chapter 12

So this chapter is a little longer than the average chapter, but that's to make up for the tame and uneventful previous chapter. Enjoy.

:P

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"Pookie?" Flo knocked on her daughter's bedroom door. There was no response, she couldn't still be sleeping this late could she?. She knocked again, this time she cracked the door open and peeked her head in. "Ashley?"

Spinelli was still in her pajamas lying on the floor and spooning a bucket. "I'm dying."

"Oh Pookie are you going to puke-y?" Flo walked over to her and helped her onto her feet. Spinelli groaned both out of embarrassment and pain.

"Yeah I feel like I'm going to puke, and then die."

"Oh don't be dramatic, nobody dies from getting their period. Why don't you take some more Tylenol, it'll make you feel better."

Spinelli turned towards the nightstand and reached for the Tylenol, It was just then that she realized that Tj was standing in her doorway and heard everything.

She gasped. She may not die from the pain but she may just die of embarrassment. "What're you doing here?"

Tj's face was flushed with red, he rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "Um.. Your mom invited me in, I just wanted to see how you're feeling."

"So you heard all of that huh?"

"Yeah... I did..." They looked down at their feet shyly.

Flo caught the tension between the two and rolled her eyes. "Oh come on this is nothing to be embarrassed about! All women get their periods at some point."

"MOM!" Spinelli face-palmed.

"Okay Well I'm going to go get dinner ready, Tj would you like to stay for dinner dear?"

"Sure, thank you Mrs. Spinelli."

Flo smiled and left the kids to talk amongst themselves. They sat in silence for what felt like hours. Tj stared out the window and Spinelli pretended to be interested in the warning label on the Tylenol container.

After a few minutes of awkwardness Tj finally spoke up. "So Pookie, you still need to puke-y?" He grinned widely then flinched, expecting a beating from Spinelli.

Spinelli flopped down on her bed and screamed into her pillow. "Oh man, she is the worst! When I was younger I got car sick a lot, she use to say that every time we went on a road trip."

Tj laughed, he sat down next to her on the bed and put his hand on her shoulder. "So how are you feeling?"

"It hurts a little, but I'll be fine. How was school today?"

"Heh I had a pretty interesting day, it all started with my own battle against puberty."

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"UGH SHUT UP!" Tj shouted at the obnoxious screaming device on his night stand. He hit the snooze button on the alarm clock and shoved his face into his pillow. He repeated this routine until 7:50 when his mother came into his room and began to shout at him. He dragged himself out of bed before Janice did it herself.

He was not looking forward to another day of school. Yesterday was the end of he and Spinelli's suspension and it had been hell. It started off with Randall nearly asking for a beating then a pop quiz during math. The other students in that class were not too fond of Tj and Spinelli and stared daggers at them during the duration of the class.

The rest of the day had a similar vibe. Students who were accused of purchasing the stolen test answers from the duo shouted profanities and threw crumbled up paper and spit balls at them. As they entered the cafeteria Randall announced on his mega phone that the "test thefts" had arrived. Tj had to give Spinelli credit for making it through the day without fighting anyone. She doled out plenty of threats though, many of them involving the possibility of death.

Tj was just about to brush his teeth when he found a feature on his face that hadn't been there the other day.

 _"A zit? Seriously?"_ He poked at the blemish on his nose. _"Why does it have to be right smack dab in the center of my face?"_

He heard that people pop pimples so he gave that a shot but he had no such luck. If Becky wasn't away at college he would have looked in her bathroom for some acne wash or something, but unfortunately her bathroom was vacant of all toiletries.

"Tj I have waffles on the table! Get 'em while they're hot!" Janice yelled through the bathroom door.

He caught his mom before she left. "Hey mom how do I pop this mountain?" He made another attempt to pop the zit.

"Tj!" Janice smacked his hand away from his face. "Don't pick at it, it will scar!"

"What do I do about this thing?"

"Well I don't have anything for it at the moment, but we can go buy some cleanser when you get home from school today."

"Ugh so I have to go to school like this?"

"Oh Tj all your friends are going to be going through this soon enough, and many of them probably already have."

Janice noticed the change of expression on her son's face when she said friends. That had been a sore subject for him lately.

"Well I do have one way to hide the blemish." Janice smiled, Tj looked confused but happy that she had a solution.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Tj sat on his front porch waiting for Spinelli to arrive so they could walk to school together. He hoped that Spinelli wouldn't notice the zit on his face. His mother covered it with her foundation but he worried that it was still noticeable. When his mother first suggested the foundation he ran out screaming. He had no interest in wearing make up, but when Janice mentioned that Mr. Detweiler had done just that when he was a teenager Tj agreed at least try it... after he was done laughing ofcourse.

Tj kept staring at his reflection in the pocket mirror he stole from his mother's purse. That's another thing he hoped Spinelli wouldn't see, out of all the things to steal from a purse- a mirror has to be the lamest. He put the mirror in his pocket and checked his watch. It was already 8:15, Spinelli isn't normally late unless he causes her to be late. He gave her the benefit of the doubt though she is only human. He took out the mirror again and nervously looked at his zit.

"You look fine Tj." Janice grabbed the mirror from him and returned it to her purse.

"Has Spinelli called?"

"She hasn't. She's running late today huh?"

Tj nodded.

"Well don't wait too long, you can't afford to get into anymore trouble."

Tj rolled his eyes, he was still in shock that his mother didn't trust him when he said that he didn't steal those test answers. Well at least the grounding was over. He checked his watch again. It was 8:24, one more minute and he's going to head over to Spinelli's house and see what the hold up is.

Tj checked his watch and peeked down the street in search for Spinelli, it was already 8:25, they had to be at school at 8:30 and she was a no show. Maybe she got in another fight with her mother? He hoped it wasn't about her clothes again. He really likes how Spinelli started to mix it up her style with slightly girlier clothing. Not that her old clothes were bad, it was just a nice change.

He was a little confused when he reached the Spinelli residence and saw Bob Spinelli sitting in a lawn chair in his flannel pajamas, drinking coffee and reading the newspaper. That part wasn't too unusual, though it was a little odd that the sprinklers were on and that he wasn't bothered by the water soaking him and his reading material. Tj contemplated going home and just calling Spinelli to avoid a potentially awkward conversation with Bob, but he decided against it for it would take too long.

"Um hi... Mr. Spinelli" Tj waved. Bob jumped and his eyes widened.

"Oh geeze Tj you startled me. Good morning.." Bob put his paper down and rubbed the back of his neck. "Uh Ashley isn't feeling too well this morning...Though her mother might bring her school later on."

"Oh." Tj frowned, upset that the only friend he had left wasn't going to join him in their new found hell. "What's wrong?"

"She uh... has the flu." The Spinellis were all terrible at lying.

Tj raised an eyebrow. "If she has the flu how would she be able to go to school later?"

"It's a... uh... quick... flu. Um you know I think I'm late for work, Have yourself a good day Tj." Bob started walking towards his car.

"Um Mr. Spinelli are you not feeling well either?" Clearly there was something off about him today; he was trying to figure out how to open his locked car, without the keys, not to mention he was still wearing his pajamas.

"Huh?" Bob was a little taken back by the question. "Oh no I'm fine Tj."

"I was just wondering cuz you're still in your pajamas...and you're soaking wet" Tj felt odd about questioning Bob's actions.

"Oh yes you're right... I should probably change."

"Well sir I gotta get to school, can you tell Ashley that I'll call her later if she can't make it to school."

"Sure thing son. Have a good day." Bob made his way to the front door of his home and seemed to have trouble grappling the concept of the doorknob.

Tj shook his head and laughed. "Thank you Mr. Spinelli, and you too."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Tj couldn't help but speculate possible reasons as to why Spinelli couldn't go to school today. He replayed the awkward conversation with Mr. Spinelli in his head over and over again. Mr. Spinelli was hiding something about his daughter, but what could it be?

Tj was taken out of his thoughts when he saw Mikey slam his locker shut. The gentle giant rarely acted out in anger, but the few times he did Tj was usually there to cheer him up. He wasn't going to let the fact that Mikey was mad at him stop him from helping his once friend.

"Mikey? Are you okay man?"

Mikey wasn't one to give a cold shoulder but the expression on his face proved that he was not pleased to see Tj.

"I'm fine, thank you for asking." Mikey gave him a polite response in an icy tone, then walked away in a huff.

Tj was getting real sick of the anger and hostility his old friends had been showing him lately.

 _"Sick or not you best be coming to school today Spinelli."_

By the time Lunch came around Spinelli still hadn't arrived. Tj wasn't in the mood to eat alone so he decided to grab a bite from Kelso's.

"Hey Detweiler!" A voice yelled out as Tj arrived at Kelso's.

"Mundy." Tj couldn't stand Mundy and his cronies, the only time they spoke to him was because they had some sort of ulterior motive.

Mundy and Skeens leaned against the wall of Kelso's while Lazy Kid took a quick snooze on the sidewalk next to them. They were still banned from the store for stealing, but they always came back to loiter.

Mundy left his position on at the wall and approached Tj. "So I hear you and that chick of yours stole those math test answers and sold them for quite a hefty profit."

"My chick!? You mean Spinelli?" Tj's eyes nearly popped out of his head. Is that what people thought about Spinelli? That she was his chick? "We didn't steal the test or sell anything we were framed, but no one believes us anyway so I'm done arguing that."

"Come on now Detweiler, you've got a real money making scheme on your hands and I want to help you increase and protect your finances."

Tj scoffed. "You can't even spell 'finances', now get lost Mundy."

Tj turned to leave but Skeens and Mundy stopped him. They each grabbed an arm and pulled Tj towards their "office". Tj had no interest in any of Mundy's trouble making schemes, he quickly escaped from their grip. He knew they wouldn't take 'no' for an answer, he had to act fast.

He shoved Skeens, who then tripped over Lazy Kid and fell. Lazy Kid didn't seemed too bothered by the body being thrown at him, he just shifted positions and found use in Mundy as a pillow.

"Yo Lazy Kid! Wake up you useless sack." Mundy tried to push his sleeping friend off of him with no avail.

While Mundy was distracted Tj without thinking punched Skeens square in the nose.

"What's your problem Detweiler!?" Mundy yelled from the ground. Tj looked over at him, he was still trying to get out from under Lazy Kid. He turned back to Skeens, who was doubled over in pain, holding his nose as blood poured out.

Tj slowly backed away from him. "Um you should probably... tilt you head up!" Tj picked up his pace and ran in the direction of the school. He found a bench when he arrived back at the school, that's when it finally hit him. He took his hat off and ran his hands through his hair, he was in complete disbelief at what just happend. He hated the idea of getting physical, and to top it off he could now be considered a hypocrite. He was always holding Spinelli back from fighting and yet he couldn't control his own anger today.

It was a good thing Mundy and his cronies rarely came to school, he couldn't deal with another confrontation from them anytime soon. At least not alone.

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"Wow I don't believe it." Spinelli was shocked that Tj had such an eventful day without her.

"I know, I feel awful I hope his nose isn't broken."

"No dude, I can't believe you wore make up!" Spinelli started to laugh, Tj scowled. "So where is this infamous zit?" Spinelli grabbed Tj's chin and inspected his face.

"Shut it Pookie." He slapped her hand and pushed her lightly.

"My my aren't we violent today, must be all those hormones."

Tj stood up from the bed and walked to the door. "Okay goodnight Ashley!" He said sourly.

"Okay okay, I'm sorry." She pulled him back into the room, opened her arms wide, and glared at him with puppy dog eyes.

He rolled his eyes and accepted her offer for a hug.

"So uh what was the deal with your dad?"

"I have no idea man."


	13. Chapter 13

StillSomeone, Scorpiogrl576, and Alexxiiaa Thank you for reviewing, I'm glad you're all enjoying the story. And keep speculating, I'm getting a huge kick out of your predictions.

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Gus's POV

 _Shoot where is my cologne? I really need something to mask the smell. I have all these useless supplies, calculators, a ruler, scissors but no fropping cologne. Okay I guess I'm going to have to go in there. Maybe mom and dad wont notice?_

 _I opened the front door and was greeted with the smell of pot roast, mmm my favorite. I inhaled deeply and began to cough, ugh this cough just will not go away._

"Soldier, you're late." _Dad didn't sound too happy. He stood in front of me with his arms crossed and a look of disappointment on his face._

 _I stood up straight, saluted my father, and rested my arms at my sides._ "I'm sorry sir."

 _He raised an eyebrow, why does he look like he suspects something? Oh god it's my stench, he knows doesn't he?_ "Dinner has always started at eighteen hundred hours."

"Yes sir, it won't happen again sir."

"Go wash up, and we'll eat."

"Yes sir." _I saluted him one last time and ran up to my room. I quickly changed my clothes and sprayed myself with air freshener. I hurried down stairs, my parents refuse to start eating until the whole family is present at the dinning room table. Don't get me wrong I loved growing up in a military family, but sometimes the routine and strictness drives me insane. I greeted my mother and took my seat, thankfully she didn't seem to suspect anything._

"Gus, Mikey called just before you got home."

 _Oh great I can only wonder what that's about._ "Okay, thanks mom."

"How is Mikey doing? I haven't seen him or any of your other pals around for that matter."

 _Shoot what has everyone been up to? I haven't really talked to the gang much in a couple of weeks._ "Um Mikey has been doing choir and um the rest of the gang has been doing after school stuff..." _That's good Gus keep it vague._

"After school stuff?" _There dad goes again raising his eyebrow._ "You mean like clubs?"

 _Okay maybe I was too vague, I do sound a tad suspicious._ "Yeah. Clubs, they're all into clubs and stuff." _Ugh could I be anymore obvious?_

 _I continued to be awkward for the remainder of dinner, as soon as I finished eating I excused myself from the table before they could ask me anymore questions. Before I made it out of the room my mom reminded me to call Mikey back. I mulled it over in my head whether or not I'd call him back. I ran into him at school today, actually he found me... well It wasn't exactly my finest moment. I knew he was going to confront me about what I was doing. I didn't want to start an unnecessary fight, so I picked up the phone and dialed his number._

"Blumberg residence, Mikey speaking."

"Hey Mikey it's Gus, you called earlier?"

"Indeed I did, I wanted to talk about what I saw today."

 _Ugh do we have to?_ "Mikey..."

"I must say I'm worried about you old friend."

"There's nothing to be worried about. I'm fine, so what have you been up to lately? How's choir?"

"I got kicked out, I'm sure I've told you this." _Yeah he might have mentioned that._

"Oh right, you were accused of cheating on that math test. I still can't believe Tj and Spinelli stole the ans..."

"Gus, please stop changing the subject."

"I'm not changing the subject! Say how much trouble did you get into for that?" _Okay maybe I am changing the subject, but I don't want to talk about...it... I knew I shouldn't have returned his call._

"Gus seriously, I'm worried about you. What you're doing isn't healthy."

"Gee what happend to the Mikey who always thinks the glass half full."

"Normally that is my attitude towards life but this is different, if you continue on this road you are bound to get into trouble!"

"I'm not going to get into trouble, I can quit anytime I want."

"Gus..."

"I gotta go Mikey I've got homework to do, catch you later."

"Gus!" _I felt bad for hanging up on him, but I can't handle talking more about that subject right now. I knew my friends wouldn't understand. Oh well who needs em?_

 _xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

"Thanks for waiting Spinelli." Tj ran up to Spinelli who was waiting for him at the bleachers in front of the football field.

"No probs man. How was your first day back at practice?"

"Well I didn't get kicked off the team." Tj half smiled.

"That good eh?"

He sat down beside her and made his self comfy. "How bout you? How was your first cheerleading practice since the suspension?"

She shrugged. "None of the airheads on the team were effected by the test so they're not mad at me, but I have a feeling that'll change as soon as the next pop quiz arises."

"Well at least you have something to look forward to." Tj joked.

"On that note we should probably plan some study time, I really don't want to fail one of those quizzes."

"We can do that, but more importantly we have a birthday to plan." He nudged her side.

Spinelli smiled slightly and opened her mouth to reply, but was caught off guard by a football nearly hitting her in the face. Luckily she saw it in time and was able to catch it. She looked around the field to find the owner of the ball so she could oh so kindly return it to them.

"Hey watch it Lawson!" She threw it back in his direction. Her aim was nearly perfect, the ball would have nailed him square in the face if Vince hadn't intercepted it.

"Yeah Lawson you almost hit Spinelli!"

"Sorry Det-Cheater! I didn't mean to hit your girlfriend!"

A couple of football players stood by Lawson and laughed, Vince however looked confused.

"She's nnn-not my ggg-girlfriend." Tj said with an unconvincing stutter. He blushed with embarrassment and scratched the back of his neck. He looked over at Spinelli who didn't share his reaction. She looked angry, angrier than usual. Normally she would attack anyone who dared to verbally attack her but she just stood in place shaking with anger.

Lawson and the guys laughed. "Sss-sure sss-she's nnn-not, Stut-weiler!"

If Spinelli had tried to attack Lawson this time Tj wouldn't have stopped her. He thought about taking care of Lawson himself, but after the beef with Mundy the other day he thought he better back off.

He looked at Vince who had joined the football players in mocking and laughing. Vince caught him staring and shot him a dirty look.

"Let's get out of here Spinelli." Tj turned to where Spinelli was sitting only to find that he was alone. He looked around in every direction wondering where she went. He caught a glimpse of her walking into the woods, a shortcut to the pond the gang used to hangout at.

As he ran after her he heard the guys making more jokes about the stolen test answers, he was tempted to turn around and give them a piece of his mind but Spinelli was higher in his priorities.

Tj finally caught up to her at the pond. She was sitting on the edge of the dock dipping her feet in the water. Tj took off his shoes, picked up a few rocks then joined her on the dock. He sat beside her, took her hands in his and passed her the rocks that he collected.

She raised an eyebrow.

"They look decent for skipping."

She smiled, she found skipping rocks to be therapeutic. Well actually she found anything involving throwing, kicking or punching to be therapeutic, skipping rocks seemed like the least violent form of therapy.

"You okay Spinelli?" Tj wrapped his arm around her shoulders once she ran out of rocks.

"I guess." She turned her head away from him.

He grabbed her chin and turned her head back to face him. "What did Lawson say that bothered you back there?"

"You know." She said with a bit of an attitude, she freed her chin from his grasp and turned away again.

"No, I don't know. He got quite a few insults in there, which one made you upset?"

"I'm not upset!" She pushed his arm away from her, this hurt Tj a bit. It was the first time Spinelli rejected one of his attempts at consoling her.

"Was it the jokes about stealing the test answers, him mocking my stutter... or the girlfriend comment?" He felt nervous asking her that question but he had to know how she felt.

Spinelli was quick to respond, Tj had just wished she had done it verbally instead of physically. She pushed him to the edge of the dock and he fell into the water. He resurfaced and rubbed his eyes, when his blurry eyes cleared up he found that Spinelli had dove in after him and was staring at him with a wide grin. He looked at her with a confused glare.

She splashed him and laughed. "I'm fine Teej, really."


	14. Chapter 14

Thanks for reviewing StillSomeone, Classic Vision, Astronomer Always, Guest, and NatalieJ-101. I love reading your opionions and predictions, they've also helped me realize that I was missing a little something that kept the characters true to themselves. So I really appreciate the reviews. Thank you all and enjoy :P

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"How bout mini golf?" Tj and Spinelli were in the cafeteria eating lunch and making plans for Spinelli's birthday the next day.

"Uh how bout no?" She laughed at Tj's lame suggestion.

"Well so far you've shot down all of my ideas, can you think of anything better?"

"Nope." Spinelli sighed. "It's just going to be the two of us, we don't have to do anything special."

"No we don't **_have_ _to_** do anything special." He smiled at her and placed his hand on her shoulder. She returned the smile but it faded when she saw some unwanted guests arrive at their table.

"What do you want?" Spinelli crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow.

Tj turned to face the visitors and instantly froze. Mundy pulled up a chair and forced himself between Tj and Spinelli. Tj was about to protest but was distracted when Skeens, Lazy Kid, Sue-Bob Murphy, and Kristin Kurst a.k.a 'Kurst the worst', joined the table.

He hadn't seen Mundy or his cronies since that day at Kelso's when he punched him in the face. Mundy's nose was slightly swollen and bruised, he was sure Mundy was there to strike his revenge so he mentally prepared himself for a fight and another suspension.

"So Detweiler, have you made up your mind about joining forces? I hear that you seventh graders have a history test coming up soon, I know a few chums that may be in the market for test answers."

"As I said at our last meeting, we didn't steal the test answers Mundy, and I'm not interested."

Of course Mundy ignored him, he wasn't taking no for an answer. "Come on Detweiler, we've got a sure fire plan here. You see a few days before the test students notice their books are missing from their lockers, me and my crew will take care of that part. All youse need to do is get the answers as you did so well before."

Tj scoffed. "You do know we got suspended for that right?"

"No one is going to get caught this time, cuz we're not going to give everyone all the right answers. The higher the desired grade- the more they pay. I'm thinking 15 bucks for an A, 10 for a B, 5 for a C. Now of course there will be discounts for friends, and we're open to haggling."

"Speaking of friends, I heard you ditched your gang but I had to see it to believe it. Hey you ganna eat that?" Kurst pointed to Spinelli's jello. Spinelli threw it at Kurst's face and it fell to the floor. Kurst scooped it up and mumbled something about the five second rule.

"Yeah I thought Shrimpnelli here would have ditched your gang of goody-two-shoers long ago, but I can see why she stuck around." Sue-Bob nudged Tj's arm.

"Why I outta!" Spinelli ran towards Sue-Bob to cream her but Mundy and Skeens held her back.

"Hey watch it! Holding Spinelli back from a fight is my job!" Tj didn't know why he felt so angry by something so trivial, but he was ready to fight about it.

"Sorry Tj." Mundy and Skeens released Spinelli and shoved her into Tj's arms.

"If you guys don't get outta here you're ganna get broken noses to match Mundy's!" Spinelli growled and Tj nodded in agreement and tightened his grip on her.

"Well if you change your mind Detweiler, here is my card." Mundy tossed him a crumbled up piece of paper with a half completed science quiz on one side and his phone number scribbled on the other.

"He spelled business with a z." Tj laughed.

"Aight they're gone you can let me go now!" Spinelli yelled tried to pull away from Tj.

"Sorry." He said sourly and let her go. He didn't understand what her problem was, she had been acting strange ever since Lawson accused them of dating.

"So word on the street is that you guys are joining Mundy's gang huh?" Randall joined the two as they sat back down to finish their lunch. He adjusted the hat on his head with "press" printed on it. "This news is moist!"

"It's not news, cuz it's not happening! Get away from us you little snitch!" Spinelli stood up from the table, kicked her chair away and left. Tj stayed behind to give her some space and time to cool down.

"I'll see you in science lab Spinelli." He turned to Randall and laughed. "What're you writing gossip in the school paper now?"

"Yup. You know you and Spinelli have been top news since that little stunt you guys pulled with the math test."

Tj rolled his eyes. "Seriously? I'm done talking about this."

Randall held a recorder to Tj's face. "Now tell me what you and your girlfriend are going to cheat on or steal next? A science or history test? Or maybe some personal items from your peers lockers? I know Spinelli has had her eyes on Swinger Girl's Walkman."

"We never stole anything, and we're never going to steal anything. Especially another kids stuff!" He shook his head when he saw Randall write something down in his notebook. Then he realized what he called Spinelli. "Did you start that rumor that me an Spinelli are dating!? Because all of a sudden everyone thinks that she's my girlfriend, we're not dating!"

Randall smiled smugly. "Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. Maybe I have evidence of you two frogging."

"Frogging?"

"It's a British word for...you know!" Randall made a kissy face and raised his eyebrows up and down. Tj shoved him slightly to stop him.

"That's snogging Randall."

"So you admit that you two were snogging!" Randall smiled with an evil grin.

"Tj pulled Randall up by his collar. "Write one more lie about me and Spinelli, and you're history." He dropped Randall on the ground and left the cafeteria before he lost his temper.

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Gretchen's POV

 _I felt a little nostalgic as I walked the halls of Spiro T. Agnew middle school. Sure I haven't been a student here long enough to create many memories, the feelings of nostalgia arose when I passed each of my peers in the hallway, that's when all the memories of kindergarten through sixth grade came back to me._

 _The Ashleys strut past nudging me slightly. My center of balance was thrown off a tad and I found myself falling into a locker. I recalled a time when the Ashleys were actually nice, when Ashley A. was kicked out of the clique and all of them fought to be my friend. I loved how wanted that made me feel but in the end I missed my friends and was glad to be unpopular again._

 _I heard giggling as I struggled to climb out of the locker. Someone offered me their hand but I rejected the help. "Ew Geoffrey. Of course it had to be his locker." He had the biggest crush on me in fourth grade, back when being a "boy liker" or a "girl liker" made you an untouchable in the playground hierarchy._

 _In middle school it almost seemed acceptable to have feelings for someone of the opposite gender, I noticed students all around were starting relationships. Mikey was showing obvious signs of having a crush on a girl named Tara in one of his classes. The Eighth grader formally known as "King Freddie" was dating one of his fanner girls. Lawson's friend Chucko was dating a chick from their grade, even Johnny V is dating upside down girl. Hmmm now that Spinelli knocked the baby tooth out of him he's actually quite handsome. Egad! Did I really just think that? I wonder if Spinelli still likes him..._

 _Spinelli... thinking of her brought back a whole other mess of memories. As the only girls in our gang we became pretty close. There were just some things that we couldn't talk to the guys about. I helped her pick out her first bra when she started to develop, and I know she'd be there to help me when and if I ever reach that stage of life. She'd kill me if I told people this but she was pretty well read. We had numerous sleepovers where we exchanged our opinions and feelings about the books we were reading, our other friends didn't enjoy literature like us. I really miss how close our gang was and I wish I could still be friends with Tj and Spinelli. Fighting with them whomps, but I cannot forgive them for what they did. When I first heard the news that they stole the test answers I thought 'no way, they've never been the dishonest type.' but the collected evidence proved otherwise._

 _I waved to Vince as I passed his locker, he was too busy chatting it up with his fellow team mates to notice. He's been spending a lot of time with them lately, other than the occasional chats on America Online Instant Messaging, I haven't talked to him much in the past couple of weeks. Same goes for Mikey, I cannot recall the last time I chatted with or even saw Gus._

"Yo Gretch!" _Vince startled me, I wasn't expecting him to leave his friends just to catch up with me._

"Hey Vince, how have you been?"

"Oh you know same old same old. What's going on with you?"

"Well, I was just on the way to the office to get a copy of my transcript."

"Getting a head start on those college apps already?" _He laughed. The gang always teased me for being too prepared for college, I don't think that's actually possible._

"Well not exactly." _I paused for a moment. I wasn't sure how I wanted to break the news to one of my oldest friends, but then again we don't talk much anymore it shouldn't be that hard... "I was accepted to Oppenheimer middle school."_

 _Vince replied, but I couldn't hear it due to the fire alarm going off. Vince and I headed to where the students meet up in the case of a fire drill. Once we were outside we sat down in the grass and watched the entire student body vacate the building._

"So you're leaving?" _He looked a little saddened by the news._

 _I nodded._

"How come?"

"I've come to the conclusion that I'm not being challenged enough. I mean I came to that conclusion back at Third Street, but that was different, I had a great group of friends whose company I enjoyed and who needed my tutelage."

"Yeah you were a great tutor, if it wasn't for you I would have never learned cursive."

"Thank you." _I blushed._ "Things were never dull with you guys around, I really appreciate that and your friendship."

Vince gave me a quick and awkward hug. "So when's your last day here?"

"November second."

"So you'll still be here for the Halloween dance."

"I will. I'm not sure if I'll be going to though, none of my friends from any of the clubs seem to be interested."

"You should go, we'll have one last hoorah before you leave. We could get the gang together for it... errr what's left of the gang."

"That sounds great, I'll invite Mikey, do you think you can get a hold of Gus?"

 _Vince laughed, I joined in knowing his task might be a tad bit challenging._ "If I can find him, where has that kid been lately?"

"Who knows."


	15. Chapter 15

"Yo Lasalle!" Lawson high-fived his once enemy turned friend.

"How's it hanging man, any idea what we're doing in gym today? Vince and Lawson walked into the boys locker room to meet up with some of their team mates before class.

"I don't know, I'm hoping for some kickball, we haven't played it at all this year."

"For real, I haven't played it since third street."

"I wouldn't be that excited for gym today if I were you." A voice yelled from the shadows.

"Butch?" Vince walked over to the voice to confirm his suspicion.

"Yeah it's me. You might want to get out of here before it's too late."

"Dude what're you talking about?" Lawson laughed, he wasn't one to buy into Butch's tall tales being that Butch is a grade below him.

A couple of their friends from the baseball and football teams joined them to hear Butch's story. There was an eerie feeling in the air. Vince felt the hair on his neck stick up, and wondered why he could hear ominous music playing in the distance.

"We're not doing any physical activities today. Today... we're watching the video."

"What video?"

"The sex-ed video."

All the guys sans for Lawson gasped.

Lawson rolled his eyes. "It sounds like a good day to skip then."

"It can't be that bad... can it?" Vince's voice cracked.

"Oh it can, did you hear what happend when Stinky Peterson watched the video?"

"I heard a lot of things about Stinky Peterson, say you might want to start changing the names of the characters in your stories kid."

"These aint your typical stories Lawson, they're legends." Butch took the tooth pick out of his mouth to give a more clear presentation. "Back when Stinky Peterson went here he watched that same video in gym class. The teachers warn you, it aint those PG rated flicks that you're accustomed to. It's not for the faint-hearted. Those with weak stomachs or heart problems were advised to sit it out."

"You guys aren't actually buying into this garbage are you?" Lawson looked around at his friends and watched as they hung onto each and every word that Butch spoke.

Butch's voice began to sound even more shrill than usual. "The video is so traumatic that the school legally has to have nurses and therapists on call. Stinky ignored the warnings and went to class anyway. Just when they got to the part explaining the reproductive system Stinky began to get really anxious. He was sweating bullets, his body was trembling, and he started breathing heavily. Finally he couldn't take it anymore he screamed bloody murder and ran out of the school, never to be seen again."

Butch surveyed his audience. He was pretty satisfied, they were just the right mix of terrified and disgusted. He put the toothpick back in his mouth and started again. "Some say he became a man right then and there, others say he actually aged backwards and was running back to elementary school. I don't even want to know what the reality of it is."

The guys looked shocked, but Lawson was unimpressed. "Well that was a bunch of hooey, either way that video does sound kinda nasty. You guys wanna skip class today or what?"

"Wait how come you didn't watch the video last year Lawson?"

"Uh I was uh sick... yeah sick..."

Vince smiled knowing Lawson was lying but he didn't want to call his friend out for being a chicken. "Yeah okay, I guess we could skip, where should we go?"

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Vince, Lawson, and four other guys from their baseball team; Jacko, Eddie, Willy, and Chucko, snuck out of school and walked to Lawson's favorite hangout spot, the dump. They found comfort in an old Volkswagen Hippy Van. They sat around playing cards and sharing snacks from Kelso's.

"FLUSH!" Vince called out as he raked in the jackpot.

"Ugh well I'm out of money." Lawson threw his cards down in defeat. "What should we do now?"

"We can start by getting out of this Van, it really reeks in here!" Vince stood up leave.

Lawson was in the front passenger seat, he got up to leave but bumped into the glove box, opening it and spilling all of the contents onto his lap. The guys looked on as he inspected the items. "No way! Guess who owned this van?"

They all looked clueless.

Lawson held up the car registration form for all eyes to see. "The owner of this 1967 Volkswagen was the one! The only! Miss Alordayne Grotke!"

Vince laughed. "Man I shoulda known this was Miss Grotke's old van, it smells like those hippy incense she was always burning in the class room."

"Oh man I don't think that was incense that she was burning." Lawson grinned widely and held up a small bag that was covered in dust. He blew the dust off it revealing something that oddly resembled oregano.

"Is that..?" Vince was at a loss for words.

"Yup, and oh look it even has papers of authenticity!" Lawson waved around stack of joint rolling papers, the guys' faces lit up.

Jacko took the weed and rolling papers and tried his hand at fastening a joint. "Who's on first?"

"Ummm it doesn't look like she left behind any matches or a lighter." Vince sheepishly pointed out.

"She forgot the goods but remembered the lighter, ha that lady's priorities were always out of whack."

Everyone but Lawson pulled a lighter out and held them out for Vince.

"I don't know guys..."

"What's wrong Lasalle?" Jacko lit the joint, and took a puff. He tried to pass it to Vince, but he turned it down.

"Oh come on what're you scared?" Chucko laughed, the other guys joined in.

"No its just..." Vince looked out the window as if there was an excuse out there for him to use.

"You're scared aren't ya?"

Vince started to sweat as his new friends ganged up on him. He silently wished Tj was there, Teej would have made it seem cool to say no to the peer pressure. Or at least come up with a decent excuse.

"Come on dude everyone else is doing it." Lawson whispered to him, he held the lit blunt in his hand and passed it to Vince. Vince hesitantly took it and brought it to his mouth, but he couldn't do it. He handed it back to Lawson and shook his head.

"How lame." Chucko scoffed.

"Way to chicken out Lasalle!" Willy took a puff and attempted to blow it in Vince's face, Vince backed up and waved the smoke away.

"I gotta go guys, I'll talk to you later!" Vince ran out of the van and headed back to school.

"Much later La-Chicken!" Lawson shouted from the van.

Vince had all the intentions of returning to school that day, but once Muddy Bottom Pond came into view he changed his mind. He walked down the path to the shore and found that he wasn't alone.

"Gus?" Vince ran up to Gus who was relaxing on the dock, kicking his feet in the water.

Gus looked up at his friend and smiled slightly.

"Long time no see, where have you been?"

Gus sighed, he seemed pretty down in the dumps. "Around."

"That's nice... I guess? So I've been meaning to catch up with you, are you going to the Halloween dance?"

"Nope." Gus said with an attitude.

"Did I hit a sore spot there bud?" As he sat beside Gus he noticed he smelled kind of odd, it was a familiar smell but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. "What's that smell?"

Gus shrugged.

"Any...way... the reason I asked about the dance is because Gretchen is transferring schools, I was thinking me, you and Mikey could go to the dance with her and all hangout for old times sake."

The grumpy frown on Gus's face was replaced with a saddened one. "She's leaving?"

Vince nodded. "It whomps. I understand though, she feels like she wasn't being challenged enough."

"Well I don't want her to leave without saying bye."

"So you will go to the dance with us?" A voice yelled from behind them.

"Gretchen!" Gus ran over and embraced her in a quick hug.

She caught a whiff of Gus and covered her nose in disgust. "Gus, why do you smell like..."

"I don't want to talk about it." He cut her off and returned his feet to the water.

"Gretch what're you doing out of school during school hours?"

"Are you sampling the water-table or researching the biodiversity of the pond's ecosystem again?"

She laughed as if she was just asked the dumbest question in the world. "No I concluded those reports months ago. I just got a little bored, we were learning about matrices in my advanced algebra class. I mastered matrices by the time I was seven! God I can't wait to get to Oppenheimer and learn something new!"

"Yeah I can see how that can get boring. Though I'd never thought I'd see the day Gretchen Grundler skips school."

"Heh me either" Gus, Vince and Gretchen turned around to see Mikey join them on the dock.

"MIKEY!" Vince and Gretchen shouted in unison. Gus gave a subtle wave, he hasn't talked to Mikey since their awkward phone call last week.

Mikey took his shoes off and dipped them in the water. "So I just got out of a meeting with the guidance counselor."

"Oh no! You're not in anymore trouble are you?

"No Gretchen, the visit was made with good intentions, I'm looking to transfer to a school that has a concentration on the arts."

"You're leaving too!? Man this school year totally whomps!"

"I'm sorry Vince, but you still have Gus, and your new friends from all the sports teams."

Vince didn't respond, he didn't want to tell them what happened with Lawson and his team mates. They'll just have to hear it from the rumor mill like everyone else.

The four sat by the pond for a while, reminiscing on old times together, though they quickly changed the subject every time Tj and Spinelli were brought up, in fear of reopening old wounds.

"I can't believe all four of us skipped school today, what're the odds!?" Gus laughed.

"Actually it looks like all six of us had the same idea." Vince pointed to the entrance to the pond. Gretchen, Mikey, and Gus followed his gaze and saw Tj and Spinelli making their way to the pond.


	16. Chapter 16

So I'm sooooo sorry about the delay with this chapter. I have a timeline of events for this story and long story short it wasn't perfect, so I got a touch of writers block. But I'm over it now so here we are.

As usual I like to thank you all for reviewing.

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"Tj! Teej? Are you okay?"

He sat on the ground doubled over in pain with his hands covering his face. Spinelli sat idly by waiting for him to regain the strength to sit up. She leaned over his side to try to sneak a look at his face. It was far too early to see any signs of bruising but she was worried about him. She leaned her head close to his and listened in to his breathing pattern, he sounded fine but he still wasn't responding to her.

She was starting to get nervous. She shook him gently to try to get his attention. Still nothing.

"Come on man give me a sign that you're okay."

He inhaled deeply, Spinelli leaned closer to him in anticipation of his response. He uncovered the lower portion of his face and let out a sizable belch. Spinelli rolled her eyes and backed away from him. Tj sat up slowly still holding a hand over his left eye.

Spinelli kneeled down next to him and rubbed his back. "You want me to get some ice for that?'

Tj shook his head and sighed. "Man you really did a number on my face."

"The cupcakes look fine though." Spinelli pointed to a dessert filled Tupperware container that was dropped up-right on the ground. "Did you make them yourself?"

"Yup just for my best friend who sucker punched me in the face, Happy Birthday Spinelli!" Tj shouted enthusiastically with just a little hint of sarcasm.

"I'm sorry Teej but you scared me, I wasn't expecting a strange man jumping out of the bushes."

"What'd you think someone's ganna to hurt or abduct you in front of your house at 8 o'clock in the morning?"

"Hey you never know, my brother Joey has done some of his most successful scams before dawn."

Tj smiled as Spinelli told him about one of her brother's infamous crimes. The tale was a tad gruesome, but he was glad too hear her open up about one of her brothers as she does so rarely.

At some point during their conversation Tj took his hand away from his face, revealing a slight discoloration under his eye. Spinelli stared at the damage she did to her friend's face, without thinking she gently touched the sore spot with her finger tips. He flinched at the touch and pulled away.

"Sorry! Are you sure you don't want ice for that?"

He shrugged "I'll be fine, now come on we gotta get to school."

When they arrived at school Tj excused himself so he could run to his locker. Spinelli headed to her own locker to grab her books. As she got close she noticed something covering her locker, students were stopping in front of it and admiring it. The first thought that came to mind was that someone vandalized it. Defacing lockers had seemed to be a popular way of communicating at Spiro T. Agnew Middle School. In the past students had vandalized lockers to; protest causes, to tease their peers (Randall's was defaced on a weekly basis.), and they were vandalized as an act of vengeance. One kid in her gym class once had his locker vandalized after he cheated on his girlfriend, she spray painted it pink and wrote numerous profanities and drew risque pictures on it. Normally Spinelli would assume that the prank was preformed by the Ashleys but now a days she seems to have more enemies than friends, it could've been anyone.

"Scram foremans!" She yelled at the crowd of students blocking her path and they scurried out of her way in fear.

Her feelings of anger disappeared when she finally reached her destination. The locker hadn't been vandalized, it was decorated. Birthday themed wrapping paper, streamers, and a collage of pictures covered it top to bottom. One particular picture caught her eye and brought her to a trip down memory lane. It was a picture of the gang during their prime, around the Kings throne at third street elementary. She snapped out of it when the bell rang signaling students to get to their first class.

"AHHHHH!" She screamed bloody murder after finding herself victim of a confetti bomb. The scream drew the attention of the entire student body and soon all eyes were on her. The hallway became silent until the tune of 'happy birthday' began to blast from her locker. She looked around frantically to see where it was coming from. She blushed as a group of students swarmed around her to inspect the noise. She looked into the crowd confused and found Tj standing there with a smug grin on his face.

"You!" She pointed at him accusingly.

He laughed at her accusation and pointed to his bruised eye. "Now we're even."

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Tj and Spinelli walked back to Spinelli's locker before heading to their third period class- history, and for the first time that school year they actually seemed content.

"Wow Tj you really out did yourself on the birthday junk; the cupcakes, the locker, Randall's absence."

He raised an eyebrow and smiled slightly. "Well I had nothing to do with the last one, but you're welcome for the other stuff."

"This has been the least whomp-iest school day this year."

"That's good. I worked hard at making your day not whomp as much, I'm sorry that I didn't work hard enough to make it a good day." He said sarcastically.

She pushed him slightly. "Oh you know what I mean man. Hey can I get another cupcake?"

"Can I get a real compliment first?" He crossed his arms.

"Can I get one of those really good cupcakes, please?" She fluttered her eyelashes.

He chuckled and opened the container of cupcakes, he picked one up and waved it in front of her face teasingly. "Compliment me, and you can have one."

Spinelli opened her mouth to retort, but found Tj's face pressed up against hers. The force of the movement caused the cupcakes to lunge forward out of the container and hit her pretty little white dress.

"Like watch it Detweiler, you're blocking Ashley T's locker." Ashley Q. snapped at him.

Spinelli shot the Ashleys a dirty look and Tj held her before she could pounce.

"Oh don't get upset Spinelli, the frosting is like a huge improvement to that hideous ensemble of yours." Ashley A. laughed, the other Ashleys cackled along with her.

Knowing all to well what would happen next if they stuck around, Tj dragged Spinelli down the hall towards the restrooms. He held the door open to the girls bathroom for her, she shook her head.

"I'm not going to be able to get the stains out and there's no way I'm walking around school covered in frosting all day. I look like a clown threw up on me." She scoffed.

"Can you change into your cheerleading uniform?"

"It's drill team, and no I don't bring it to school unless I have practice or a game. I'm just going to go home and change." She started to walk down the hall towards the exit.

"Wait what about class?"

"Oh they won't miss me in one class."

"Spinelli we're already in a lot of trouble as is. Can't you just have your parents bring you a change of clothes?"

"They're at work, I'm just going to run home and change and I'll be back by lunch. No one will even notice I'm gone."

There was no way he was going to get her to stay, and after all they've been through already they might as well continue down the path of trouble together. Tj ditched class with her and walked her back to her house to get a fresh change of clothes.

"You want something to eat dude?" Spinelli asked Tj as she slid down the stair railing.

"What do you got?"

They walked to the kitchen to rummage for food when the back door opened. A large rugged Italian looking 20 something year old man walked in, wearing a leather jacket, a dark blue t-shirt, dark jeans and leather combat boots. He bore a resemblance to the goon Spinelli hired to be her father on parents night.

"Joey!?"

"Ashley? Hey aren't you supposed to be in school or something?"

"Aren't you supposed to be doing community service or something?"

"Touche baby sister."

She embraced her brother in a hug. "What're you doing back?"

"They let me off community service early cuz of good behavior. So now I'm visiting for a week or two." He took a bottle of root beer from the fridge and cracked it open with his teeth. "So who's your little friend here?"

Tj extended a hand out to Joey. "Hi I'm Tj."

Joey shook his hand and chuckled. "So this is the crazy ringleader of the gang. I'm Joey, Ashes here told me about some of your pranks. I must say impressive work."

"Oh thank you." For the first time in his life Tj was feeling a bit shy. The only thing he knows about Joey is that he was in prison for a few years, but he didn't want to insult the guy by bringing that up. Tj just stood there awkwardly scratching the back of his neck and praying that someone else continues the conversation.

Spinelli had never seen this side of Tj before, she thought it was hilarious and was curious to see what he'd do with this awkward silence, but she also didn't want her friend to be uncomfortable. "So Joe-bro what're you plans while you're in town?"

"I plan on catching up with the boys at some point, but other than that I just came to see the fam. Speaking of fam, have you visited Vito lately?"

"Nah, I haven't seen him since he went in the slammer. Mom thinks that if we visit the prison too often that I'll get too accustomed to it and follow in yours and his footsteps."

"Yup that sounds like Flo's logic. Hey uh visiting hours start in half an hour, you wanna go see him?" Joey waved his keys in the air.

"Definitely!" Spinelli sprinted towards the door, Tj yanked her jacket pulling her towards him.

"Did you forget? We gotta get back to school. Lunch is over in 20 minutes, and we still have three classes left."

"You're ganna have to go back without me Teej, I wanna see my brother."

"Spinelli we can't afford to get caught skipping, we're in so much trouble already. Do you want to get suspended again?"

"I aint stopping you from going back."

Tj crossed his arms and gave her a look of disappointment.

She gave him an apologetic look before following Joey out to his car. Tj was expecting to see a motorcycle or a truck parked out front, he was surprised find that Joey was the proud owner of an old Subaru station wagon.

"Sorry Teej."

"You sure you don't wanna come kid?" Joey opened the back door to the car inviting him to join in on the fun.

Tj looked at Spinelli and sighed. "Okay, I'm in but only cuz it's your birthday."

"Wait it's your birthday sis?"

Spinelli rolled her eyes Joey wasn't always the brightest.

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"This is so exciting! I haven't seen Vito since I was eight!"

"He'll be pleased to see you, he asks about you every time I see him."

Tj silently laughed as he watched Spinelli try to contain her excitement. She looked like a little kid in a toy store; she was bright-eyed grinning ear to ear and she couldn't sit still in her seat.

"I told him how you still wear his old boots, Last time I saw him I gave him a copy of that picture of you from the first time you tried the boots on. You remember that picture?" Joey nudged Spinelli's arm.

Spinelli stopped fidgeting and turned a deep shade of red. "Shut it Joey." Her family just loves to embarrass her.

"Tj remind me to show you that picture." Joey caught Spinelli's fist in action and put her in a headlock, she struggled to break free from his grasp. "Ashley couldn't have been more than two years old, she jacked the boots while Vito was polishing them. We were trying to get them back from her before she got the polish everywhere, but she was in a "everything is mine" phase... So there she was buck naked, putting the boots on and she gets polish all over her...OW!" Joey yelled. Spinelli freed herself and punched Joey in the arm.

Spinelli turned to Tj who was giggling uncontrollably. She shot him a dirty look, he got up from his seat and sat next to Joey. "So you say there's photographic evidence of this?"

Joey lost it. Spinelli growled and stood up to attack them. Joey calmed down and smiled. "Ashley wait!" He pointed over to the door where the inmates arrive. A line of inmates made there way to their families. Joey and Spinelli searched the crowd for their brother with no luck.

"Where is he?" Spinelli pouted. Tj walked over to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

Joey spotted a corrections officer and walked over to chat with him. "Hi I'm here to see my brother Vito Spinelli."

The corrections officer looked confused and exchanged eye contact with his supervisor. "I'm sorry Vito Spinelli won't be taking any visitors this week."

"Excuse me!?" Joey crossed his arms. The corrections officer flinched and looked back at his supervisor.

"Vito Spinelli has been in the SHU for a month, he won't be getting released anytime soon."


	17. Chapter 17

So this chapter is very late and I'm soooo sorry about that. Well here it is, please don't forget to review! Enjoy :P

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Spinelli's birthday really had taken a turn for the worse. It started out great; her best friend really out did himself with multiple heartfelt surprises for her, turning a run of the mill school day into a day for the ages. There were a few minor annoyances; The little tiff with the Ashleys and the cupcake incident while annoying weren't enough to ruin the day, in fact it got better from there. She was surprised by a visit from her brother Joey who invited her along to go visit her other brother Vito in prison a rare treat. The day went down hill when they were told that Vito had been placed in the Shu- the "Special Housing Unit", thus cutting the Spinelli family reunion short. Other than the incident that landed him in prison Vito was never much of a trouble maker, so this shocked and concerned his siblings greatly to hear that he was placed in solitary confinement.

Spinelli felt hopeless as she watched the exchange between her brother and the prison warden. They were just out of earshot so the only information she could get out of the conversation was from the expressions on their faces. The warden all though short, slim, and frail looking did not respond emotionally to any of Joey's fist shaking, jabbing, or death glares. Instead he continued to nod his head like a bobble-head. After twenty minutes the warden handed Joey a business card and offered a hand to him. Joey ignored the gesture and yanked the business card, he made his way back to his sister and friend with his head hung low.

"Joey?" Spinelli stood up preparing herself for the news.

Joey just closed his eyes and shook his head.

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"Thank you for the ride Joey... and I'm sorry about Vito." Tj extended his hand towards Joey.

Joey returned the handshake an added in a single armed bro hug. "Thanks kid. Do me a favor and look out for Ashes will ya?"

"Heh I don't think she needs anyone to take care of her, but I'll always be there for her."

"Ha I guess you're right there. Well have fun at school. Later." Joey waved and drove away from the school.

Tj wondered why Spinelli had been so quiet, it didn't take him long to realize that she ditched him. He caught her walking towards the school exit and towards the center of town.

"Spinelli wait up!"

When he caught up with her she was about to enter Kelso's. He grabbed hold of her jacket stopping her in place.

"Hey I don't think that's a good idea. Mundy and his crew are probably loitering around here, we don't wanna get in anymore beef with them."

"Well where else can we go?"

He let go of her jacket and put his hand on her back leading her back towards school. "Eh I don't know, let me think..." He threw on a quizzical face and rubbed his chin. "How bout school? We still have 2 hours of it left you know."

She didn't appreciate his sarcasm though. "Pass."

"Man we're ganna be in so much trouble later." He sighed "Okay birthday girl what would you like to do?"

"We can't go back to my house my mom will probably be home any minute now, what about your place?"

"Can't my mom has the day off, we could go sit by the pond till we think of something better to do."

Spinelli shrugged and the two turned in the direction of the pond.

"So... how are you doing?" Tj asked shyly.

"How am I doing!?"

Tj instantly regretted asking her that.. He knew she was going to blow up into a fit of rage at some point, he was just hoping she wasn't going to take it out on him. He covered his ears to prevent the possibility of his ear drums bursting.

"Terrible." She said in a hurt tone. Tj felt heartbroken, he'd would much rather see her in a fit of rage than to see her upset. Tj pulled her into a hug.

"Like Joey said, your parents will call the warden and figure it out... I'm sure it's all just a big misunderstanding."

"Teej the SHU is not something they accidentally throw you in, it's a big deal. It's for when people get into fights or harm others."

"But you said Vito's not like that."

"He's not! He's not a fighter like me and Joey, he is the good kid." She sighed and buried her face into Tj's chest.

Tj squeezed her tight. "Come on let's go find you a big ole pile of skipping rocks." Tj broke the hug and lead Spinelli down the path to the pond.

Relief came over upon their arrival, they were ready to blow off some steam and end this day. They passed the last few trees in the path and Muddy Bottom Pond came into clear view- as did the faces of their four ex best friends.

All six former friends were speechless. This was the first time in over a month that they were all together and no one was prepared for this awkward reunion.

Spinelli thought for sure that Tj would be the first to speak up seeing how he was the leader and typically the voice of reason in the group, but he stayed silent.

Tj expected and hoped that Mikey the sweet souled gentle giant would beg everyone to end the fighting and become friends again in an embarrassingly poetic manor, but Mikey also bit his tongue.

Gretchen wanted to say something, anything but didn't know where to begin. She was still a bit peeved at her friends for what they did, but she had also been missing them like crazy.

Vince's thoughts about the little reunion were pretty similar to Gretchen's. Earlier that day he would've killed to have Tj by his side to help him out when he was being peer pressured to smoke weed, but he also still felt betrayed by Tj's actions at their first football game.

Gus and Mikey exchanged looks and whispered amongst themselves. Gus turned to Gretchen and Vince and signaled them to leave. The four of them glanced back at Tj and Spinelli one last time and headed for the path.

Mikey followed behind them at a much slower pace. He stopped in front of Tj and Spinelli and gave them a half smile. "Are you guys going to the Halloween dance?"

Spinelli nodded. Tj was taken aback at this, he had no idea that she wanted to go.

"That's nice, I guess I'll see you guys there." Mikey waved and called after the gang to wait up for him. After a few seconds he stopped and looked back in Tj and Spinelli's direction. "Oh yeah Happy Birthday Spinelli!"

"Thank you!" Spinelli shouted back. She grinned ear to ear.

"Hey I didn't know you wanted to go to the dance."

"I really didn't want to, until Mikey mentioned it. You think he asked cuz he wants to hangout with us at the dance?"

"Possibly. I guess we will have to go to find out." Tj wrapped his arm around Spinelli's shoulders and looked at her shyly. He opened his mouth to speak but chocked on his words.

"Teej?"

"Umm Spinelli... do you want to go to the dance?"

"Well yeah I kind of just said that I wanted to go."

"Right... I just meant with me..." Tj pulled his arm away from her and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Obviously dude I'm not going alone and you're my only friend, but hopefully that will change at the dance and Mikey will talk to us again."

"Uh..."

"And who knows, maybe the others will follow suit! Oh man this is so exciting!" Spinelli hugged Tj. He returned the hug and although he was feeling slightly rejected at that moment he too felt excited about the up coming dance and the possibility of reconciliation.


	18. Chapter 18

Still Someone: I definitely wish I had used a bit more detail to describe that scene at the pond. I'm glad you got the point of that scene though, it was meant to be an awkward reunion for the gang so I wanted it to be quick Gretchen, Mikey, Vince, and Gus weren't in the mood for confrontation and just wanted to get the hell outta there. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

NatalieJ-101: It hurt to me to put Tj in pain like that but it had to be done :( . Glad you enjoyed it, thank you for reviewing.

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"Oh cruel world! Who could ever be so heartless as to gruesomely harm and dismantle one of Earth's beautiful and delicate creatures and call it... an assignment?" Mikey dramatically sobbed into Gretchen's shoulder as she collected some items from her locker.

"Don't think of it that way Mikey, it's purpose is to better mankind. It gives students hands-on experience and understanding of anatomy and physiology. Students can take what they learn from this assignment and go on to be doctors and cure diseases. It's an important lesson and the backbone to the middle school science curriculum."

"Are you guys talking about the upcoming frog dissection?" Vince leaned on the locker next to Gretchen's. Gretchen and Mikey nodded.

Ever since Vince found out that Gretchen and Mikey are transferring to different schools, he has been sneaking away from his team mates in between classes to catch up with them. He searches for Gus too but he rarely ever makes an appearance in the halls between classes. The three of them have been speculating reasons as to why they never see him.

Gretchen suggested that he stays in his previous class late to ask his teachers more extensive questions on the material they learned in class that day.

Vince suggested that he might be looking for a faster alternate route much like the gang had to return to class after recess- until 4th grade when it was ruined by that 42 year old snitch posing as a kid who was hired by Skinner and Prickly to foil their plans.

Mikey tried to suggest positive reasons as to why Gus wasn't around but it was clear that he knew something that the others didn't, and he wasn't about to snitch on his friend.

"Man I'm not looking forward to slicing open a frog, that's just gross."

"And Morbid." Mikey muttered.

"But important!" Gretchen didn't want her point to be lost amongst her juvenile friends.

"You probably won't have to deal with all that anatomy junk at your new arts school though Mikey, you can probably just skip the assignment."

"I haven't actually been accepted to any performance arts schools yet. I probably won't hear back from any of them for a couple of weeks, report cards will be issued well before I transfer and I'd rather not have my grades suffer."

"Wow sounds like a real catch 22 buddy."

Gretchen sighed.

"Something up Gretchen?" Vince turned to her.

"Oh It's nothing really." Catch 22 reminded her of Spinelli, it was the last book they read in their secret book club. She struggled to hide the look of sorrow on her face, but she knew she had to. Vince was staring at her unconvinced. " You know Mikey I have heard of a simulator that gives you a seemingly similar experience to frog dissection. Although it is a tad bit expensive."

"We can hold a bake sale." Mikey's attitude took a complete turn, it was nice to see him happy but unfortunately they had to bring him back to reality.

Vince patted Mikey's back. "I hate to break it to you big guy, but I don't think a simple small town bake sale is ganna do the job. Anything involving science is insanely expensive, I can't even imagine how much a simulator would cost. Plus the dissection is on Halloween, that's only four days from now."

"Even if we were to purchase the software for just one computer it would cost..." Gretchen typed some numbers into her Galileo computer. "Egad! It would cost over two grand! Not to mention the necessary operating system updates and the purchase of additional ram... I'm afraid it just doesn't seem feasible Mikey."

"Well if we can't afford the simulator, we're just going to have to start an old fashion protest and free the students and the frogs from the assignment."

"But Mikey it's for science."

"If that is your stance on the matter I'm okay with that Gretchen, but I have to try to save those innocent creatures."

Gretchen sighed again. "Where do we start Mikey?"

Mikey smiled and pulled Gretchen into a hug, he would of squeezed the life out of her if Vince hadn't stopped him.

"I'll help out to, but how exactly are we going to talk the entire student body into failing an assignment?"

"Just start explaining the cause to people they'll join, I'm sure of it."

"You're way to optimistic Mikey" Vince had his arms crossed with a stern look on his face. "Don't ever change."

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"Save the frogs! Save the frogs! Save the frogs!" A voice shouted from the other side of the hallway as Tj and Spinelli left their second period class.

"I wonder what that's about?" Tj turned to Spinelli. She shrugged, the two walked over to the direction of the noise.

There their former best friend Mikey stood on a milk crate holding a megaphone in one hand and a picket-sign reading "Save the frogs", in the other hand.

"Oh I heard Randall talking about this earlier, Mikey is trying to protest the big frog dissection on Halloween."

They stood back and watched his protest. Students were paying him no attention, he put down the picket-sign and began to hand out flyers to each passer by. students either ignored him or crumbled up and discarded the flyers, no one seemed even the slightest bit interested in the cause.

He set the flyers and megaphone and sat to rest on the crate. He held his face in his hands.

He didn't notice Tj and Spinelli walk up to him. "You know there is a football game tonight, I could ask the cheerleaders mention the protest... If you want."

Mikey looked up at her with a small smile. "Really?"

Spinelli nodded.

Mikey handed her some flyers about the protest. "Thank you Spinelli."

"No problem big guy."

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"These stickers came out awesome Spinelli." Tj marveled over a frog sticker that Spinelli made. "Making the frog's skin see through and showing all it's organs is a great way to showcase the cause."

"Thanks man, but it wasn't really my idea there actually is a type of frog with see through skin called the 'glass frog'."

"Are they really glow in the dark like these stickers?" He peeled the sticker off the paper and stuck it to his football helmet. It was a fairly large sticker and covered the entire top portion of the helmet, with the limbs falling down onto the face mask.

Spinelli laughed. "Nope that was my idea, I'll take the credit for that one. It'd be hard to miss these suckers from the bleachers. So are you sure you can get the team to wear these?"

Tj shrugged. "I can ask. Either way the word about Mikey's protest is definitely going to get out tonight. Did you and the cheer squad-"

"Drill team." Spinelli corrected as she always does when she is in her opinion "wrongfully" called a cheerleader.

Tj rolled his eyes. "Sorry, did you and the drill team come up with a cheer for the protest."

"We did. It isn't great, it's kinda cheesy but it should get the message across."

"Good. Mikey will surely want to talk to us again after we help him out. Maybe we can even invite him out to Kelso's tonight."

"Oh I forgot to tell you, I can't go to Kelso's tonight."

Tj frowned. Going to Kelso's after each football game became a tradition for him and Spinelli, it was one of the few good things that came out of this whomping school year. "Oh."

"We're having a family night. My mom actually suggested that I invite you. We're probably just going to order some pizza and watch the God Father."

"Cool. You and your folks have been spending a lot more time together eh."

"Yeah with Joey back in town and the whole Vito thing going on, we've just been bonding."

"That's good. Any word on Vito?"

"Nope, they can't give us a straight answer. Each guard present at the time of his sentence to the SHU had conflicting stories as to what he did. The warden keeps saying he'll call us back but he never does, and when we try to contact him his secretary says that he just conveniently just stepped out."

"That's insane!"

"Yup, well I have to go put on that skimpy little outfit and cheer for you saps to win, go pass out these stickers will ya?" Spinelli handed him a bag filled with the frog stickers, then unexpectedly pulled him into a hug.

Tj wasn't quite sure why she was hugging him but he wasn't complaining. He didn't hesitate to squeeze her back. When she pulled away he flashed her a smile and turned to the boys locker room. When Tj arrived most of the team was already in the locker room, he stood up on a bench in the center of the room and whistled.

"Hey guys, I don't know if any of you heard of the protest that Mikey Blumberg started but it's a good cause and it could really use the publicity. He is protesting the frog dissection assignment. There are 300 7th graders scheduled to do the dissection on Halloween, If we can get everyone to say no to the assignment we would save 300 frogs lives. So if you are interested in helping out with this selfless cause take a sticker and put it on your helmet." He thought for sure that a few of his teammates would be interested, but no one came forward to get a sticker. It was almost as if Tj had lost his amazing speech making skills.

"I'll take one of those." Vince walked over to him with his hand open.

Tj smiled and handed him a frog sticker.

"For Mikey." As Vince put the sticker on his helmet Lawson and a few other guys lined up to get a sticker.

"Yeah give me one of those things Toad-Weiler"

"They're frogs Lawson." Tj rolled his eyes.

Soon enough the entire team had frog stickers on their helmets and were ready to help out their peer in his protest.

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"Oh shut up at least it got everyone's attention" Spinelli punched Tj in the arm as they walked back to her house.

He continued to laugh, she should have put a little bit more force into the punch. "I didn't realize you had such a way with words Spinelli!"

"Hey I didn't come up with the cheer, it was all Captain Jenna's idea. She and her friends are the only ones allowed to make up cheers for the team."

"Oh... that whomps, so even someone came up with a good cheer-"

"They'd kick you off the team for over stepping their boundaries. It's probably for the best though, I over heard some of the cheers that the Ashleys came up with and they are just awful. All of their cheers have us spelling out 'scandalous'... Which by the way they don't even know how to spell correctly."

"Hey that's not an easy word to spell Spinelli."

Spinelli laughed. Spelling was probably one of Tj's worst subjects in school, he never got higher than a 'C' on a spelling test. While unknown to Spinelli's friends she was receiving all 'A's in that subject.

"Did you see that Vince had one of your stickers on."

"Yeah, even Gretchen was sporting one."

"You gave her one? Did you two talk?"

"No I kinda just passed one to her and to her friends as I was walking by. I was rushing so I could go talk to Mikey. Though I didn't get the change to talk to him either, he was too busy with his friends."

"Understandable. He is planning a grade wide protest, we'll have to give him time I'm sure we'll get to talk to him once it's all over."

"Did you see how long the line was to sign the petition? It was like 40 kids deep. I looked at the list after halftime and we already had 140 signatures on it, that's almost half of our grade."

"That's not even the best part. After the half time performance a couple of football players from Nelson A. Rockefeller middle school were talking about doing the protest when they do the frog dissection next month. I told them that they could come buy the frog stickers from the cute cheerleader in the combat boots." Tj flinched and covered his face anticipating another punch from Spinelli for referring to her as a cheerleader, but oddly enough she remained calm. He looked over at her, she was blushing and looked kind of confused.

"Cute?" She questioned.

Tj gulped. Ooops. Well this is awkward, what does one even say in a situation like this. "Um... TAG YOU'RE IT!" He poked her and ran for his dear life.

Spinelli regained her composure, smiled, and chased Tj back to her house.


	19. Chapter 19

So I noticed that this story hasn't been getting a lot of reviews lately... Remember whether it's good or bad let me know what you think.

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Enjoy :P

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"Ugh those cheaters are like so dead." Ashley A yelled as she stomped out of her math class with the other Ashleys in tow.

"You haven't been studying?"

"That's like soooo not the point Ashley T! I've been totally busy this week. Between cheerleading practice, etiquette classes, and catching up on the latest fashion trends; I haven't had a moment to even think! I certainly don't have time to study for math." She sighed dramatically. "Now I have to stay after school until I pass one of those stupid pop quizzes that Mr. Flynn passes out like cheap candy."

"That's like so tragic." Ashley B whined.

Their leader clenched her fists and began to shake slightly. She looked like she was about to throw a tantrum. "This is all Tj and Spinelli's fault! This would not have happened if they didn't steal the test answers. Like seriously how could those wanna-bes be too busy to study? What could they possibly of been doing instead?"

Ashley B smirked. "Maybe those two love birds finally got together."

"EWWW!" The four of them yelled in unison and shared a laugh.

"Hey Ashley A can I borrow some lip gloss? Daddy brought me to the store last night but the cosmetic department was all out of my usual berry blue balm." Ashley Q interrupted.

"Like sure..." After receiving the lip gloss Ashley Q made her way down the hall to tend to some very important business.

"Ashleys, we need to talk." Ashley A whispered to the remaining members of the group They huddled into the nearest corner. "I'm worried about Ashley Q, ever since she failed the cheerleading tryouts she like hasn't been herself."

"Like what do you mean?" Ashley B questioned.

"Did you notice how much make up she's been borrowing from us lately. My lip gloss today, Ashley T's mascara last week, and lest we forget that time she asked Ashley B. to borrow some blush! AS IF you two were the same skin tone."

"You don't think..."

"I do."

"Are you sure?"

"For sure!"

"The Quinlans are broke?" Ashley B. squealed. The other Ashleys quickly covered their friends mouth to quiet her down.

"Okay so she has been borrowing make up, is that really enough proof to say that she's broke?" Ashley T was getting a little annoyed with her friends, probably because she and Ashley Q were closer than they were with the others.

"We should check the sign in sheet at the country club."

"Like great idea Ashley B! Daddy always says that the first sign of bankruptcy is the lack of attendance at the club."

Ashley B opened up a fuzzy purple note book and scribbled some notes down with a bejeweled cross fountain pen. "We should also see if the Tylers or Brittneys heard or suspect anything."

"Then we can call this meeting to a close."

"SCANDALOUS!" Ashley A and Ashley B cheered together, while Ashley T offered them a fake smile.

"Now let's go find Ashley Q, we gotta finalize the details for the dance."

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"ribit ribit ribit ribit ribit! Students were in a full fledged protest on Halloween at Spiro T. Agnew middle school. Many students stood outside the science labs making frog noises- a few of them actually hopping on some paper lilly-pads that were thrown all over the hallway courtesy of Spinelli.

"Tj! Tj!" A slim tan brunette girl hopped over to Tj as soon as he exited the boys restroom.

"Oh hi Judy."

Judy took one last hop and bounced back up to an upright position. "Tj, I know this is very last minute, but do you have plans for the dance tonight?"

Tj was taken back by this. He didn't think any girls were all that interested in him yet, especially since the whole school thinks he stole the math test answers. Then again Judy has been acting bizarre around him ever since that Valentines day back in 4th grade. Maybe now is a good time to compare her to a summers day? Nah that's too mean.

"Sorry Judy I'm already going to the dance with Spinelli."

"Oh... okay then. See you later Tj."

Tj watched Judy enter the girls restroom, he could of sworn he saw her crying...

"So Judy wants to go with you tonight?" Spinelli snuck up from behind him.

"Geeze Spinelli!" He jumped. "Yeah she asked what my plans were. She seemed a little sad. I kinda think she's had a crush on me since the Valentines day card fiasco back in fourth grade.

"Oh."

Tj noticed Spinelli looked upset now. Pshhh Girls why are they so emotional?. "I feel sorry for her, but I'm really happy with the plans I got." When he put his arms around her she smiled at him and they made there way to their next class together.

"Get your Frog memorabilia here!" Hustler Kid shouted from his locker. He opened up his trench coat to show off his merchandise. (Errrrrr that didn't sound right.) "We got Pogs covered in frogs! We got beanie babies- legs the frog and smoochy the frog! Or maybe you'd like to show your support with a 'Frog off' hat."

"What's the going price on those hats Hustler?"

"On the house for you Detweiler." Hustler Kid placed the hat over Tj's red cap. "If it wasn't for you and Spinelli nobody would know about this protest. Oh and Spinelli these Frog Pogs came out great."

"Thanks man." Spinelli high-fived Hustler Kid.

Tj laughed. "Dude you play Pogs?!"

Spinelli gave him a dirty look and tossed a hand full of Pogs at his face. "No way! But you know how crazy kids are about those things. I sold them to Hustler for a dollar a pop, I could make 200 bucks off this deal."

"Wow you're really creative Spinelli. These Pogs came out great and those frog stickers were a huge hit... I hate to say this but you should really join the art club or something, you're an amazing artist."

Spinelli tried to cover up the fact that she was blushing. "Thanks Teej, but I'm not about to ditch you for some stupid club."

Tj smiled and placed a hand on Spinelli's shoulder. The bell rang and students dispersed into their next class. The two stood back and watched a group of students hop into the science lab.

"Judgement day."

"Come on let's get it over with."

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The bell rang once again this time signaling the end of class. Tj and Spinelli walked out of science lab with long faces and heavy hearts.

"This really whomps." Tj took off both of his hats and scratched his head.

"Yeah we didn't even get a froppin chance to refuse the assignment."

The students that were previously protesting were no longer making frog noises and hopping, and were leaving the lab in quiet upright positions.

"Mikey is going to be so upset."

"How did it go guys?" Mikey caught up to Tj and Spinelli outside their classroom.

The two exchanged looks. Tj ran his fingers through his hair while Spinelli looked down at her feet.

"Uhhhhh..."

"Well...

Mikey had his hands clasped together and was grinning ear to ear.

They didn't want to hurt Mikey with the bad news. He was so hopeful in saving the frogs and he put so much time and effort into the protest, the news is probably going to break his heart.

Vince and Gretchen joined him to hear the outcome of their hard work. Vince was wearing a T-shirt with the Budweiser Frogs and also donned a 'Frog Off' hat. Gretchen was too mature to protest with her daily attire, though Spinelli could have sworn she saw Gretchen fiddling with one of her handmade Pogs.

"Tj? Spinelli? How' did it go?" Mikey asked again, he was starting to get nervous.

"Hey big guy!" Gus greeted Mikey. "Any word on that protest of yours?"

"That's what we were just trying to find out." Gretchen replied.

"You guys didn't chicken out did you?" Vince said in a bit of an angry tone. While he was a tad skeptical of this protest at first, he was just as involved in supporting his friend and was feeling very protective of him at that moment.

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING A CHICKEN?!" Spinelli waved her fist at him and moved to attack.

Tj took hold of madame fist. "Spinelli stop!" Once she was calm again Tj took a deep breath and looked up at Mikey. "Mikey... The frogs were stolen..."


	20. Chapter 20

Okay I'm soooo sorry about the delay with the updates, but let me make it up to you with two chapters. Don't forget to review and thank you to those who have been reviewing! Enjoy :p

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"October 31st, snooping for the scoop. Recording number 48" Randall crawled out of the janitors closet- his usual hiding spot decked out in his 'press' hat, with a recorder, a pad of paper and a pen in hand. "Hmmmm who shall we interview first?"

By now most students were aware about the stolen frogs and as the self-proclaimed breaking news expert of "The Spiro T. Ag-newspaper, Randall knew he had to be the first to get the scoop.

He looked around the hall to find a good reliable source or at least someone who wouldn't beat him up if he wrote a fictitious article.

"Hustler kid?" He watched as the school's number one salesman explained his return policy to one of his customers.

"Well if you're not satisfied with _my_ means of business you can take _your_ business to one of the many other students hustling merchandise from their trench coats!"

"Maybe not... best not to get on his bad side incase I run out of cookies. Who else? Who else?" He questioned as he walked by a dark and gloomy corner.

"Oh I wouldn't pop that zit if I were you."

Randall turned around to see a shadow emerge from the corner and greet a group of kids.

"How bout Butch? No.. only a fool would believe his tall tales."

"Swinger girl?" He shivered when she walked by, she's had it out for him ever since second grade when he told Mrs. Finster that she brought a can of WD-40 to school. She did bring it to fix a loud swing, but it was still against the rules, a snitch gotta do what a snitch gotta do.

Randall spotted Mikey and Gretchen cleaning up. He hid in the doorway of a classroom and surveyed the scene.

A dim light bulb appeared above his head. "Hmmm the leader of the protest. A few words from him would be extra moist."

"You gotta stop talking to yourself snitch!" Lawson pointed out as he left the classroom that Randall hid in.

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Immediately after the news of the stolen frogs broke out Mikey began to rid of any evidence of the protest, he and Gretchen were in the middle of taking down a banner when Vince caught up with them.

"Hey buddy I went down to the cafeteria early and scored some butter-scotch pudding- your favorite."

"Thank you but I don't have much of an appetite right now." They finished taking down the banner and Mikey began tearing it to shreds.

"Wow I never though't I'd see the day." Vince put a calming hand on Mikey's shoulder. "I'm really sorry this didn't work out, but you sure all our work was in vain?"

"I'm afraid so, the administration said it could take a few weeks to get another batch of frogs, by then the student body will most likely have forgotten about the protest. On the bright side, any day now you should be receiving your acceptance letters to one of the performing arts schools that you applied to."

Mikey slumped down to the floor and sighed. "But Gretchen that doesn't help the frogs."

"Well it saves one frogs life." Vince pointed out. Gretchen and Mikey shot him a dirty look. "Sorry I'm no good at being optimistic."

"No you are right Vince." Mikey looked up at his friends with newfound hope. "One less life will be sacrificed... And who knows maybe a few kids will remember the protest and opt out of the dissection. If we can save at least one life then I say it was all worth it."

"There he is!" Vince shouted and pulled Mikey to his feet. "There's the happy-go-lucky guy we know and love. Now come on why don't you take a break from cleaning."

"Good idea Vince, we could all use a break. Now I have to go help Mr. Flynn prepare a study guide for the upcoming math test. I'll be back to help you after lunch." Gretchen waved the two goodbye.

"She calls that a break?" Vince laughed. "I gotta go too but I can lend you a hand later, take it easy big guy." Vince left for gym class leaving Mikey alone.

He looked around at the scattered remains of the protest and shook his head. Even with the help from his friends it was going to take all day to clean. But they were right he needed to take a breather and collect his thoughts.

"Soooo Blumberg." Randall caught Mikey's attention.

Mikey's optimism was really being tested today. "Hello Randall." He muttered in a less than enthusiastic tone.

"So I heard about the great frog heist, and I know how passionate you felt about the cause, so I ask you this- who do you think stole the frogs? and what do you think their motivation was?" Randall held his tape recorder up to his interviewee.

Mikey sighed. "I honestly don't know Randall, and I don't wish to comment any further." Mikey turned away from him and headed to his next class, but Randall wasn't giving up yet. He kept up with Mikey's pace easily seeing how he was much smaller and more agile than the gentle giant.

"Hey hey I'm trying to help you out friend!"

"He's not your friend Weems!" Tj yelled from behind.

"Well if it isn't the test stealers, last I recall you two aren't too chummy with Mikey here either."

"That's none of your business! Now leave him alone or else you and Madame Fist are going to get pretty chummy." Spinelli rolled up her sleeve exposing her weaponry.

"Alright alright! I'll lay off him, but I will crack this story." Randall turned off his recorder and retreated back to the whole he crawled out of.

"Yeah and if you even think about bugging him again your story won't be the only thing that gets cracked!"

"Thank you Spinelli, I really need to get my mind off of the protest and his investigation wasn't really helping."

"No problem." Spinelli smiled at him.

"Is there anything we can do for you man?" Tj put his hand on Mikey's arm since he was far too short to reach his shoulder.

Mikey's response was cut off by the school's intercom cutting in.

"Can I have Michael Blumberg to the Principal's office please, that is Michael Blumberg to the Principal's office, thank you."


	21. Chapter 21

Mikey walked into the principal's office for the second time this school year. While he has gotten in trouble before going to the principal's office alone was still new to him and the experience made him sick to his stomach. Outside the Principal's office was the main office which often hosted a line of other trouble makers, typically repeat offenders. Today was just like any other day.

"Tell me SB what'll it take?" Mundy sat next to Sue-Bob Murphy and took her hands into his. She quickly pulled away and spat on him.

" _Ahh young love. It's wonderful seeing all my peers growing, maturing, and finding themselves_." Mikey thought to himself. He surveyed the other hooligans in the room.

"So I told the kid, if you're not going to have any lunch money for me to steal than the least you can do is make me a bagged lunch." Gelman recalled his latest attack on a smaller innocent kid.

 _"Well maybe not all my peers."_

"Like no way and like ew! That would totally ruin my reputation!" Ashley A screeched.

Menlo covered his ears as she threw a tantrum. After she calmed down he put on a puppy dog face and began to beg. "But if you went to the dance with me I can give you anything you want! Another locker, immunity from detention, I could even wipe the non-excused absences from your records. You know you've really accumulated a lot this year after that whole zit incident."

"SHHHHH! You do not speak of that! Ashleys don't get zits! Now if you keep that a secret I'll let you watch me dance to one song from a safe distance of fifteen feet."

"Deal." Menlo offered her his hand to shake but she scoffed an walked out. He held his hand up to his heart and let out a loving sigh. The school bell took him out of his trance, and he remembered he was working. He picked up the sign in sheet and studied the names on the list. "Mikey Blumberg, Principal Thorny will see you now."

Mikey inhaled deeply as he gripped the doorknob. "Principal Thorny, you wanted to see me?"

"Ah yes Michael, take a seat."

Mikey followed his orders and twiddled his thumbs nervously. He watched the man before him stroke his beard as he thought carefully on the right words to say.

"I understand you were the student that orchestrated this protest, am I right?"

"You are correct sir. I did it to save the lives of the frogs."

"And I imagine you heard what happened to the batch of frogs ordered for the dissection."

"I did hear about it."

"And you understand that those frogs are property of Spiro T. Agnew middle school, and that stealing school property is grounds for expulsion."

Mikey's heart skipped a beat. "Pardon me?"

"The school board will be conducting an investigation on the matter, is there anything you would like to share with us before we begin the investigation? Any insights on who could have committed such an act or why?"

Mikey's heart was pounding now. _"Does he actually think I did it? I was trying to save the frogs, having the dissection postponed wouldn't solve that."_

"Principal Thorny I can honestly say that I do not know who did it, and if I do hear anything I will let you know."

Principal Thorny stopped stoking his beard and stared Mikey down reading all his features to see if he was conducting a lie detector test. After good moment of silence he finally spoke up. "Okay Michael you're free to go, just keep in mind we will find the culprit."

"I hope you do sir. I hope you do."

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"Yo Mikey!" Vince shouted from the steps of the school.

Mikey turned to see his athletic best friend chasing after him. They high-fived when Vince reached him.

"What happened to you today man? You were a no show at lunch and you didn't help us clean up, I know I said that you should take it easy but man I didn't think you'd listen that well."

"I got called down to the principal's office."

"Oh yeah I heard your name get called on the overhead, what happened in there?"

"Principal Thorny thinks I did it."

"NO WAY!" Vince yelled drawing the attention of students nearby.

"Hey guys, what's going on?" Gus greeted as he and Gretchen caught up with them.

"Get this, Principal Thorny accused Mikey of stealing the frogs."

"Gadzooks!"

"What!?"

"Well he didn't accuse me per se... but it was very much implied. When I was leaving his office he made it loud and clear that the culprit would be found."

"But you would never do such a thing!"

"I know Gus but he doesn't know that, and I'm sure the most recent marks on my permanent record doesn't help his impression of me."

"But you didn't do that either."

"He also doesn't have any substantial evidence. I wouldn't worry too much Mikey, science will prove him wrong, It always does."

"Gretchen's right, you don't have much too worry about. Now come on we have a few hours before we gotta get ready for the dance, let's go to my house and watch Beanie McChimp."

"Uhh you guys go on. I'll meet you at the dance, I gotta go... uh... clean my snake's cage! See ya!"

Gretchen and Vince stood back and laughed as they watch Gus run off in the wrong direction of his house. Mikey looked on worriedly knowing well what is dorky best friend was up to

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Tj looked at his annoyed reflection in the mirror as his mother slowly combed, gelled, and styled his hair.

"Mom you've been working on my hair for over twenty minutes now, come on I'm going to be late."

"Sorry dear, I just wanted everything to be special for my boy's very first date." Janice Detweiler straightened Tj's tie and cape.

Tj rolled his eyes. "It's not a date mom, it's Spinelli. We've been best friends since we were four."

She sprayed some weird musky cologne on him. "Okay it's not a date, you are just going to the dance with your long time crush dressed up as Senor Fusion and his girlfriend Femme Fetale, but it's not a date I get it."

Tj let out an annoyed groan. "Femme Fetale is Senor Fusion's sidekick they're not together." Pffft parents they don't know nothin'.

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The doorbell rang at the Spinelli house hold.

"Ashley! Tj's here!" Bob Spinelli called for his daughter before opening up the door to let the neighbor boy in.

Before he could greet Tj, Spinelli came running up from behind him grabbing Tj's arm and pulled him outside. Bob acted fast and picked up his daughter and pulled her back in.

"Hold your horses Pookie we gotta get pictures first."

"Why must you guys get photographic evidence of everything?" Spinelli grunted as she escaped from her father's hold.

Tj laughed as he watched her struggle. "Sorry Spinelli but my mom wants pictures too."

Spinelli rolled her eyes. "Alright let's get this over with. MA GET OUT HERE I'M TRYNA LEAVE!"

Flo made her way down the stairs with a camera in hand. She stood by Janice and the two started snapping pictures with no sign of stopping. Bob and Sam Detweiler stood behind their wives and watched them torture their children.

"Tj dear put your arm around her!" Janice ordered her son.

"Pookie uncross your arms and try to smile."

"Hey how bout we get a picture with the moms?" Tj suggested.

"Okay well you don't want to be late." As quickly as the cameras were whipped out they were put away.

"Have fun tonight you two, be home by 10."

The mothers hugged their children and did some last minute primping much to their chagrin.

Sam patted his son on the back as Bob kissed his daughter's forehead and pulled her into a hug. "Aww you look beautiful Princess." Bob teared up a little.

Spinelli rolled her eyes. "Dad..."

Finally Bob shook Tj's hand an offered them a ride to the dance, but they turned it down in favor of walking. In reality they couldn't take much more of the coddling and embarrassment and were ready to have fun.

As the view of the Spinelli residence disappeared Tj wrapped an arm around Spinelli's shoulders, she smiled enjoying the familiar comfort.

"So your costume..." Tj started but for some reason couldn't get anymore words out.

"My costume?" Spinelli raised an eyebrow. She waited for him to respond but he just had a blank stare and his mouth was agape. She flicked his nose.

"It's nice." He managed to spit out. "You look... beautiful as Femme Fetale." He felt instant regret as soon as he said this, but it was true she looked amazing. Her hair had been down and curled with a big red flower on top. Like Senor Fusion Femme Fetale was a Spaniard who embraced her culture. She was a Flamenco dancer so Spinelli's costume was styled to allow for dance. The costume was a long red spaghetti strap dress which hugged her body tightly. The helm in the front stopped at the knees, but continued to flow off in a trail in the back. She even traded in her boots for a pair of black heals for this one occasion.

"Thanks Teej." She blushed. "You look great yourself."

He blushed back. Senor Fusion's crime fighting outfit was a matador costume. Tj was dressed in a blue matador's suit with a pink shirt and pink socks. He wore a blue mask to hide his identity, though he opted out of wearing Senor Fusion's hat and kept his own iconic red hat.

"I hope Mikey's doing better, he was really upset about the frogs."

"And I'm sure getting called to the Principal's office didn't help him feel any better."

"Yeah I wonder what that was about."

"Well why don't we ask him HEY MIKEY!"


	22. Chapter 22

Yay we had a good amount of reviews after the last update. :P Glad to see you guys are enjoying the story.

Thank you Classic Vision, StillSomeone, jhwlgh, Mia for reviewing.

VintageVixen66: So I know the name Vito was only mentioned once in the series, however I'm not so sure that there was a name change. Vito was mentioned in a season 4 episode; "Prince Randall" Before that Joey had been mentioned several times, to change the name after so many mentions seems kinda odd. But who really knows. I personally like the idea of her having two brothers because The Spinelli's are Italian and I can picture them being the stereotypical Big, loud, close-knit Italian family. Anyways that's just my opinion. I hope that despite our differences you enjoy the story anyway. :)

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"Mom, Dad! I'm heading out!" Mikey shouted from the front door of his home.

"Oh Mikey! Hold on a second!" Mrs. Blumberg poked her head out of her bedroom. "I almost forgot, you got a few things in the mail today."

She pointed to the kitchen, Mikey's face lit up and he ran back inside to the table which held a stack of five thick envelopes addressed to him.

His mother handed him a letter opener and stood quietly behind him. "Come on open it!"

Mr. Blumberg embraced his wife and looked at his son proudly. Well what're you waiting for?"

Mikey tore the first envelope open and pulled out the contents. He chomped on his nails while reading the material. After skimming through the first page he placed the envelope back on the table and picked up the next envelope and repeated the procedure again and again. After finishing through the contents of the third envelope he dropped everything.

His father looked over at his mother looking for an explanation, she just shrugged. They stood by idly waiting for good news, bad news, any news at all, but instead Mikey excused himself citing that he was going to be late for the dance.

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"HEY MIKEY!"

He heard someone shouting his name and turned around to find Vince chasing after him.

"Hey nice costume man, very festive." Vince admired the details of Mikey's Michigan J. Frog costume.

He bowed and tipped his hat to Vince. "Why thank you old chap. The original intent behind the costume was celebrate the success of the protest, but now it holds a different statement. Now it says you can't keep us down! The cause lives on just like stolen frogs!"

"Awww yeah that's the spirit man!" Vince high-fived Mikey. "Nobody can keep you down big guy!"

"So who are you supposed to be?

Vince opened his mouth in shock. He was about to explain to Mikey which professional basketball team mascot he was dressed up as but stopped when he saw Gus get dropped off in the school parking lot. Gus stepped... errrr tripped out of a long black Hummer SUV with tinted windows and chrome rims. Another passenger slammed the door shut on Gus and the driver sped off.

Mikey and Vince exchanged confused glances. "When did Gus's parents get such a tricked out ride?"

"HEY MIKEY!"

Mikey turned to see Tj and Spinelli running up to him. "Uh-oh."

"What's wrong? I thought you guys were good now?"

"Well I didn't actually forgive them."

"Are you going to be okay? Want me to tell them to leave you alone?"

"Shhh No I'll deal with them." Mikey whispered as Tj and Spinelli reached them. "Oh hi guys." He said shyly, avoiding eye contact.

"How are you doing big guy?" Tj gave him a quick pat on the back.

"Ummm I'm fine I guess." He wasn't quite sure what to say to them so he looked down and pretended to be really interested in his shoes.

Thinking that the big guy was just day dreaming about Winger Dingers, Tj tried to bring him back from his daze by waving a hand in front of his face. "So what was that trip to the Principal's office about? Is everything okay?"

Mikey looked over at Vince hoping for an answer or advice but Vince too was pretending to be preoccupied by drawing some football plays into the dirt with a twig.

Spinelli took note of her former friends awkward behavior and realized what they were doing. "You're still mad at us aren't you?"

Mikey looked back down at his feet and rubbed the back of his neck. Vince stopped his drawing and turned to Mikey. "Come on we're supposed to catch up with Gretchen at her locker."

Mikey simply nodded and followed Vince, leaving Tj and Spinelli alone and dumbfounded.

"This is ridiculous! How is he still mad at us?" Tj shouted once they were out of earshot.

"Seriously!" Spinelli kicked Vince's dirt drawing erasing his plays. "We were the biggest supporters of his protest and we did all that work for him! How could he possibly hate us?"

"Oooh do I smell trouble in paradise?" Randall snickered as he snuck up from behind slightly startling the friends.

Spinelli lunged towards him. "You're not going to be able to smell anything when I'm through with you!" Madame Fist was locked, loaded, and aimed at the snitch's nose but Tj caught her before she could make contact.

"Spinelli stop let's just go inside and enjoy ourselves. We'll worry about the gang later." He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and led her towards the Gym. "Tonight is just about the two of us."

Spinelli shot Randall a terrifying death stare, but quickly calmed down as her friend embraced her and pulled her away.

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"So... uh... why are you still mad at them?" Vince asked Mikey as they walked away from their ex-best friends.

Mikey shrugged and sighed. "I don't know. I was starting to forgive them. They seemed to have been trying hard to win back my trust, and they did almost have it."

"So what changed?

"Nothing changed... Except well... I finally started to get responses to the performance art schools that I applied to."

"Mikey that's great! Congrats! Which school..."

"I didn't get in." Mikey cut him off.

Vince stopped dead in his tracks. "Whaaaa?"

Mikey sighed and nodded his head and continued towards the school until Vince pulled him to a halt and into a brief man hug.

"Thanks."

The two reached the entrance to the school and realized they were late to meet up with Gretchen.

"It's fine guys, really I was reviewing a few formulas in my head anyways."

"Oh man..." Vince turned to Mikey with a large grin. "My brother Chad says that when girls say 'It's fine', it really means 'you're going to regret not wearing a cup today.'"

Even Gretchen couldn't help but laugh at this.

"Shoot I started leaving my cup at home when I stopped being friends with Spinelli." Gus announced when he arrived, receiving another round of laughter from the gang.

Hey Gus glad you made it." Vince wanted to confront Gus about his mysterious ride to the dance, but he still had some unfinished business with Mikey. While Gretchen and Gus went to get some punch, he pulled Mikey off to the side of the Gymnasium.

"My permanent record seemed to have scared them off. My recent suspension for cheating on the math test made the admissions office concerned that I'd be a bad gamble."

"I see. I'm really sorry man." Vince sat down on the bleachers. "This school year really whomps."

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"Ew why is Menlo like staring at us?" Ashley B asked her friends as they danced along to their favorite Nsync song.

Ashley A shrugged. While her friends weren't looking she gave Menlo a dirty look alerting him that he is too close to her personal space. He scooted back to be precisely 15 feet away from the Ashleys, once settled in his new position he winked at their leader. Ashley A. rolled her eyes. "Anyone hear from Ashley Q? She's like more than fashionably late."

"She called me from the car. She had a nail emergency, she'll probably be here soon." Ashley T informed them.

"So did you two dig up any dirt from the Tylers or the Brittanys?"

Ashley T. shook her head and Ashley B. apologized. "Were you able to get a hold of the Country Club's sign in sheet Ashley T?"

She bit her lip and hesitantly pulled the records out of her purse.

"Wait just a minute!" Ashley A. shoved her friend and surveyed the area around them. She pulled a tissue from her purse and began to yank at an object sticking out of a rolled up gymnastics mat. "Like get out of here Randall!"

Randall cursed under his breath when his not-so-secret hiding spot was uncovered. While climbing out of the mat it started to unravel under his weight causing him to fall on his face. The face to floor contact created a loud bang drawing the attention of the crowd to him. The DJ stopped spinning and all eyes were on Randall. His peers began to laugh and point, but he was more than used to being publicly humiliated so he just walked it off.

When he thought he was alone his lips curled up into an evil smile and he rubbed his hands together. "This weeks edition of the Spiro T. Ag-news is going to be extra moist."

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Tj and Spinelli sat side by side at the table closest to the snack buffet table for obvious reasons. Quiet moments were rare between the two; They usually always had something to talk or joke about, but tonight they were oddly quiet. They almost seemed shy.

Tj watched Spinelli twirl a lock of hair around her fingers as he thought about what he could do to break the silence.

They haven't spoken since they sat down 15 minutes ago.

" _Think of something... Talk about the gang? No that'll upset her... or make her angry I can never tell anymore... Ask about her dance class... nope Mikey is in her dance class can't bring that up... Ask about her brother... nope... cheerleading... nope... Ugh is there any non-touchy subject to talk about?"_ He looked over and saw the Ashley's dancing together. " _We can make fun of the Ashleys' costumes perfect_."

He looked over at her again, she was still in a trance. "I have to go to the bathroom." Tj nearly smacked himself when that sentence fell out of his mouth. That was not what he meant to say at all.

Spinelli nodded and pulled at another strand of hair.

" _What was that? I finally found something to talk about and I ruined it by excusing my self? And why is she staring at me like that_?"

"I thought you had to go to the bathroom?" Spinelli asked.

He realized he was still sitting in his seat and had showed no signs of moving. "Oh yeah, I'll be right back." He stood up and continued to mentally reprimand himself.

" _Boys. They're so weird._ " Spinelli laughed to herself. When Tj was out of sight she pulled out a compact mirror and inspected her reflection. She nervously patted down the flyways in her hair and wiped away the cookie crumbs from her mouth.

 _"Oh man what am I so nervous for? I'm hanging out with Tj, we've been best friends since Kindergarten. God I sound like a prissy little girl, being all shy when their crush is around. This is like the Jhonny V. thing all over again, apparently I just can't function around boys. Ugh"_

She stopped cursing at herself when Tj returned to the table. When he sat down she smiled at him.

"Hey did you see..." Both Spinelli and Tj started to say, they stopped when they noticed each other trying to speak.

"You go first." They said in unison.

They laughed. "I was going to ask; did you get a load of the Ashleys' costumes?" Tj finally spit out.

"That's what I was trying to say!"

"What are they even supposed to be? Ashley A is clearly wearing cat ears but her tail looks like it belongs to a squirrel."

"Ashley T. looks like a cross between a grizzly bear and a penguin."

"I can't even tell what animal hybrid Ashley B. is."

Tj and Spinelli found themselves falling back into their old groove, what did they have to be shy about anyway? The music suddenly stopped and a loud thud gained the attention of the entire gym. Randall seemed to had fallen on his face and the crowd was going wild over the incident.

"Ha serves the little weasel right!"

"I know he's been extra annoying this year. Remember when we came back from our suspension and he tried to get everyone in our math class angry at us?"

"How could I forget! You were about to punch him, I was the one to hold you back."

"Man I'm glad we had witnesses, nobody would ever believe me if I said that Ashley Spinelli stopped a fist fight."

"I have a hard time believing it myself." Spinelli smiled, Tj chuckled.

A Destiny's Child song wraps up, Tj and Spinelli roll their eyes at the sight of the Ashleys cheering for one of their favorite bands. The music fades out and the annoying electronic beats are replaced by an epic guitar solo.

"Alright Metallica!" Spinelli shouted.

"Hey Spinelli..." Tj was now standing in front of her chair.

"Yeah?

Tj gulped. "Do you wanna dance?" He felt heat rise to his face and his heart was pounding. "With me that is."

Spinelli blushed. "Sure Teej."

He took her hands into his, pulled her to her feet and escorted her out to the dance floor.


	23. Chapter 23

Sorry schools been hectic lately, but we're starting to get close to the conclusion so don't worry the story won't be going unfinished.

jhwlgh and Ambs123 thanks for reviewing! Ambs123 I can't believe you read this all in one night that's dedication right there! :D

So I'm dying to know what everyone thinks of this chapter! hehehehehehe. Enjoy. :P

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The Halloween dance was in full blast at Spiro T. Agnew middle school. Once the students got over the awkward boy-girl rift the dance floor became a real hot spot with most kids visiting it for at least a song or two. Well most students. Naturally some stayed away to maintain the status quo, for them it was just business as usual.

"Flash Lights! One dolla! Get your flashlights here! What's a better way to show you're having a good time than by illuminating the room with a flashlight! We got 4 different colors here! One dolla each!" Once Hustler Kid reeled in a good sized line of potential buyers he quickly added "Batteries not included."

"I'm really not into this kinda music, you think the DJ knows any swing bands?" Swinger Girl asked a blonde girl hanging upside down from the bleachers next to her.

Skeens wasn't much of a dancer so he opted to use his creativity else where, while Lazy Kid napped on the side lines he took out a can of spray paint and out lined his sleepy friend. Kurst had spent all her time pigging out at the snack tables, and Sue Bob Murphy and Mundy entertained themselves by bullying a few weak kids.

"Just one dance S.B, you just name the song I'll make sure that old disc jockey spins it real good." Mundy cracked his knuckles threateningly.

"You don't need to threaten the man, he's taking requests." Sue Bob Murphy foiled his lame attempt of impressing her and any other unfortunate ladies.

Mundy flashed her a toothy grin. She watched him wet his thumb and drag it across his uni-brow.

"You can primp, prod, and groom all yah want, I won't be dancin' with the likes of yah anytime soon."

He sighed in defeat and relaxed himself. "Well I'm ganna go T.P the teachers lounge. You in?"

"Alright! Now you're speaking my language!" The delinquents ran off to gather a stock pile of toilet paper- almost knocking Guru Kid's hat off along the way.

"Oh Great Guru Kid, how can I tell a girl that I really dig her?" Digger Dave bowed and sacrificed a winger dinger in exchange of wisdom.

He accepted the sacred pastry and returned the bow to his pupil. "The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread."

"Umm what?"

"Interesting, I was under the impression that Guru Kid wrote his own material." Gretchen whispered to Gus after watching his interaction with Digger Dave.

"You mean he doesn't?"

"Well he just clearly stole that quote from Mother Teresa." Or maybe the author did because she's terrible at writing and even worse at love.

Gretchen and Gus stood behind the scenes watching their peers enjoying each others company. Mikey left to dance with his "friend" Tara, and Vince excused himself briefly to catch up with Lawson and his teammates. They were having a blast though. Only thing that was missing was a dance partner.

"Hey Gus, would you care for a dance?" Gretchen gestured towards the dance floor. Although she didn't have any feelings for her dorky friend he was really the only option at the moment.

"Errrr I'm sorry Gretch... I have to... go to the bathroom!"

"And then there was one." Gretchen sighed and sat down at a table by herself. She surveyed the room hoping to find someone to entertain her. Just two tables over her former best friend Spinelli was sitting alone, twirling her hair- a nervous habit of hers. When the two made eye contact Gretchen offered her a smile but it was never received because she had been distracted by Tj's arrival. Gretchen watched her face light up. "Oh get a room you two."

"I know right! You think they'll ever get together?" Vince scared Gretchen so bad she began to choke on the candy apple she was snacking on. He wrapped his arms around her and performed the Heimlich maneuver. A chunk caramel coated apple shot out of her mouth and landed in a soccer goal a whole ten feet away from them.

"GOAL!" Vince cheered and high-fived Gretchen. She rolled her eyes and laughed, who needs to dance when you're with good company.

"Hey guys I didn't mean to leave you hanging but I knew I wouldn't have been able to forgive myself if I didn't ask Tara for a dance."

"Awww yeah that's our boy!" Vince patted Mikey's back, and he blushed a deep shade of red.

"It's quite alright Mikey. I think it's getting a little warm in here, do you guys want to step outside for a bit of fresh air?"

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"This is most refreshing after a work out like that. I haven't danced like that since well... before the fight." The gang hung their heads in memoriam.

An evil laugh broke their moment of silence. They exchanged looks wondering if the snicker had come from the gang.

"Hey guys!" Gus shouted as he ran down the steps of the gymnasium entrance.

"SHHHHH!"

"What's going on?" He whispered to the gang.

"SHHHHH!"

The four of them tiptoed around the front entrance, looking in bushes and trashcans for the source of laughter. All that was left to check was the space under the stairs.

"HA! And to think I thought of this plan all by myself. My first plan with the math test answers got everyone pretty upset with them including their own friends, but they'll get completely shunned after they get accused of this! Three hundred live frogs just waiting to be dropped on the entire Spiro T. Agnew student body. Those things are so nasty and slimy... Or dare I say...Moist. MUAHAHAHAHA!"

To say Gretchen, Vince, Mikey, and Gus were shocked would be an understatement.

"Good sweet Mike! They're innocent!"


	24. Chapter 24

Thank you for the reviews "Recessssss", NatalieJ-101, and Ishvallan.

Ishvallan; I have a blast reading reviews with predictions! Also reader's predictions help me to see whether or not I am being too predictable.

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When one thinks back to their middle school dances they are often reminded of the annoying repetitive pop songs from that decade. Well here we are just ten months into the new millennium and the jams of the '90s are still fresh in our minds. Fortunately though the DJ blessed the dancers with some '90s rock; a handful of Metallica songs, a couple of Aerosmith songs, and finally a little Red Hot Chilli Peppers, but like all good things it had to come to an end. Besides what would a middle school dance be without some cliche mushy love songs do dance to. The DJ slowed things back down with a slow song from one of those annoying boy bands that Tj and Spinelli couldn't stand. The Backstreet Men or Men to Boys... something like that.

At that moment it was like the students had ceased being kids and grew into full blown teenagers. They embraced the slow music, and their partners in a really awkwardly spaced dance. The boys placed a hand on each side of their partner while the girls wrapped their arms loosely around the boys necks. The distance they kept between them made the whole thing awkward and embarrassing. It seemed like you could fit Mrs. Finster between them or even an entire car, but in reality they were just arms length apart. Every couple seemed to be guilty of this act.

Tj and Spinelli called it quits when the 'mushy love junk' started playing, and stood around watching their peers grow up right in front of them. It was entertaining to Tj to watch them in this state but Spinelli was just downright disgusted by it all. "That's not dancing."

"Do you want to show them how to do it right?" Tj offered her his hand.

She was secretly happy to have been asked, but she hesitated to accept his offer. "I don't know how to slow dance either, I just know that what they're doing is not it."

He put his hands in his pockets and bit his lip. "Umm... so... I may or may not have a little slow dancing experience."

Assuming that he was kidding, she laughed at his remark.

His cheeks became flushed but he continued, reminding her of the time in fourth grade when he got a black eye from square dancing in his youth group. "First we did a few slow dances, then we moved on to some more folksy stuff like square dancing. My mom finally let me quit when I got that black eye."

She knew he was being honest that time because he looked at her in the eye the entire time he spoke. She still found it kinda funny though. Tj Detweiler the fearless leader, the class clown, the coolest kid in school... could waltz? She forced her lips together and tried her hardest not to smile, but Tj caught on to her.

"Errr forget it, just please don't tell anyone." He turned away from her and walked back to their table. Just as he was about to sit he felt a hand on his shoulder.

He was expecting his tiny companion with open arms and an apologetic mug, but when he turned around he found someone towering over him with a mischievous grin accompanied by an equally mischievous crew.

"What do you want Mundy?"

"Word on the street is that you and that chick of yours stole the dissection frogs today. I just wanted to say kudos man."

"YOU HEARD WHAT?!" If pinching yourself wakes you up from a dream, how do you wake yourself up from a nightmare? "Why would we steal the frogs when we were protesting to keep them alive!"

"Oh come one don't be modest." Skeens gave him one big forceful pat on the back, knocking the air out of him and nearly knocking him over.

Mundy grabbed his arm and kept him from falling. He dusted him off and grinned at him like he was about to pitch him a sale. "Now what exactly do you plan on doing with the specimen? I know you're a crafty prankster but I just thought I'd weigh in on..."

Tj was starting to get angry and found it best to just back off and walk away before he ends up punching Mundy, Skeens or one of their cronies. Again.

 _"Hmm I wonder where Spinelli went?"_

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"Ohhhh we are such rotten friends." Mikey sobbed dramatically into Gretchen's shoulder.

"We are not." She patted his back to try to console him. "We couldn't possibly have known that they were set up."

Vince stood up from the steps and started to walk back inside. "All I know is Randall is a snitch and he's ganna get it!"

"Wait Vince where are you going?" Gretchen stopped him by tugging on his shirt.

"I'm ganna get Spinelli, I'm sure she's ganna want a piece of him."

"It'd probably be in her best interest not to get her all fired up, especially with the current state of her permanent record."

"Well now that we know the truth they can get their records cleared." Gus pointed out cheerfully.

Vince looked over at Mikey and whispered so the others couldn't hear. "You know once we get your name cleared those schools that rejected you are going to begging on their knees for you to attend."

Mikey wiped a tear from his eye and mouthed 'thank you'.

Gretchen hated being the logical one in the group but somebody had to do the job. "Well Not necessarily Gus."

"What are you talking about? They didn't steal the answers we just heard Randall confess!"

"Yes but what proof do we have? I'm almost certain that he won't confess to Mr. Flynn or the administration."

"We could threaten him." Vince suggested.

"Please friends can't we solve this without violence!?" Mikey cried.

"Mikey's right." Gretchen pointed out. "We must go about this without threats and physical altercations, or else we run the risk of tarnishing our own names."

"What are we going to do then?" Vince was grateful to have someone as logical and rational as Gretchen on his side, especially now he was starting to feel his inner Spinelli coming out. He wanted nothing more than to show Randall that he messed with the wrong group. Gretchen may not be able to physically hold him back but she can always convince him to stop before he steps out of line. "We can't let the little snitch get away with it."

"This might be a shot in the dark but we can take a look around Mr. Flynn's office to see if we can find any evidence, the administration could have overlooked something when they did their investigation of the stolen tests."

"Do you actually think we'll find anything?" Gus asked with uncertainty.

"Randall's not exactly the brightest kid, I'd say our chances are pretty good." Vince reassured.

"We should get started now, we need to get back by the time they announce the winners of the costume contest!"

"Oh did you enter the costume contest Gretchen?"

"No Gus I'm not. The costume contest is when the entire school meets on the dance floor. I imagine that's when Randall is going to release the frogs so he can have a greater number of victims."

"When do they announce the winners?"

Gretchen adjusted her glasses and looked at her watch."We have precisely one hour, twenty-two minutes and... seventeen seconds. Come on let's get moving!"

Gus glanced at his own watch and gasped. "Uh I gotta go do something first, I'll meet you guys in a few."

Gus began to walk away but Vince took hold of his arm and pulled him back to the group.

"Sorry Houdini, you can't pull one of your escape acts now we need you."

Gus thought for a second on how he could excuse himself. He could feel Mikey glaring at him, he turned to face him and met a look of disappointment. He sighed and looked down at his feet. _"Oh boy it's going to be a long night."_

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"It's locked." Gus tried jiggling the door knob."

Vince shook his head. "No kidding Gus, if teachers left their offices unlocked someone might do something crazy like... I don't know steal some test answers."

Mikey laughed while Gretchen tried to unlock the door with a bobby pin. After breaking four of them she ran out. "This isn't going to work."

"What now?" Gus slammed his back against the lockers and slid to the floor. He looked up and a light bulb went off above his head. "Hey there's a vent above his office, you guys thinking what I'm thinking?"

Mikey bent down so his friends could use him like a ladder to climb into the ventilation system. "Just like the good old days at 3rd street."

Despite still being new to the school and not knowing the buildings blue prints as they did with their elementary school. The four friends were successful in crawling through the vent system, they climbed out and spread out to search for clues.

Mr. Flynn's office was very small so it wouldn't take the gang to long to search.

Gretchen began by studying Randall's class work, and making observations about his penmen ship in case they found any hand written clues.

Mikey dusted all surfaces for finger prints, while Vince checked the floor for foot prints.

And Gus went through Mr. Flynn's files to try to find anything else that might be of use.

"Even if I find a foot print how are we going to know who it belongs to?" Vince turned off his u.v flash light that he used to search for prints.

"It's simple, different shoes leave behind different impressions. Tj almost always wears converse sneakers which have markings unlike any other shoe, so it should be easy to distinguish whether or not a print belongs to him. And we all know that Spinelli has been wearing her brother's old boots since the third grade. Those combat boots are a hundred percent Italian leather and have very unique impressions."

"So if we find a foot print that doesn't match their shoes..."

"That's where things get difficult... We'd have to match the prints to Randall's shoes some how."

"Well let's not worry about that now, we should really focus on one thing at a time."

"Uh hold up if we found a foot print wouldn't it be likely that it would belong to Mr. Flynn."

"I took that into consideration, I've already lifted a footprint of his that I found under his desk."

"Wow Gretch you really thought of everything."

"Hey guys you gotta check out this drawing that Spinelli did of Mrs. Finster it's really good!" Gus laughed, he handed the drawing over to Gretchen.

Vince peaked over her shoulder and chuckled. "This is spot on! She even got the liver spots right!"

Gretchen was less interested in the markings on the paper than the physical state of the paper. She silently inspected the paper and looked at the several creases, trying to mimic the many folds. After the last fold she held the paper up and admired her work. In her hand she held a paper football.

"It looks great Gretchen, but is now really the time to play?"

"Don't you get it Mikey? This is how Spinelli and Tj got accused of stealing the answers! Spinelli wrote this note with a liking of Mrs. Finster and addressed it to Tj, then she signed it. On the morning of the test it was found in the filing cabinet where the test answers should have been."

"Everyone knows that's how they got caught, how is the paper football going to help us now?" Vince asked skeptical as usual.

Gretchen held the paper football under Vince's nose. "Does this smell familiar?"

"UGH!" Vince batted her hand away and pinched his nostrils together to stop the stench from penetrating his nose.

Mikey then took a turn at sniffing it. "That is familiar...Is that..."

"Pickles and anchovies." Gus almost lost his lunch after getting a whiff of the paper.

"That's Randall's favorite sandwich..."

"That my friends, is just the evidence we need to clear our friends' names." Gretchen smiled at the gang. "Come on let's go tell them the good news."

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Spinelli felt horrible for laughing at Tj. When she managed to calm down and make a strait face again she went to apologize to him.

She walked around the perimeter of the gym to avoid bumping into any dancers along the way.

"Ooof!"

"Hey watch it!" Of course there were still plenty of people to bump into on the sidelines.

"Sorry Spinelli."

She looked up at the kid that knocked her over and felt heat rise to her face.

"Oh hi baby-too... uh I mean Jhonny V."

The blonde boy extended a hand to her, she accepted his offer and he pulled her back onto her feet.

"Are you okay?" Instead of releasing her when she was upright he changed the position of their hands and gave hers a squeeze.

"Heh yeah, I'm fine. Are you?"

"Well yeah, but I'm not the one that fell flat on my butt."

Her cheeks were still bright red, but this time with anger. She pulled her hand back and slapped his away. "I didn't fall! Some clumsy ole goon knocked me over. Watch where you're going next time will yah?" Spinelli shoved Jhonny V. and walked away before he hit the floor.

 _"I hope Tj isn't mad at me for laughing at him."_

As she got closer to the table she saw that Tj wasn't alone. Someone had been keeping him pretty occupied in her absence. Someone she had never had ill feelings for until earlier that day. Someone named Judy.

Before she could be seen she doubled back to the perimeter of the gym. Jhonny V. was still dusting himself off from his tumble when she returned.

"Hey you wanna dance?" She asked not beating around the bush.

"But you just shoved me!"

"So is that a no or what?"

Jhonny V. just shrugged and motioned for Spinelli to follow him to the dance floor.


	25. Chapter 25

Sorry about another long wait, school has been stressing me out lately, but also I had some issues with this chapter. Not writers block but I had issues with the dialogue of one scene between the guys of the gang. It just didn't seem organic and I may end up revising it later on, I'll let you guys know. But I've been keeping you guys waiting long enough, so enjoy and please review!

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"And I'm so sorry that the protest didn't go your way, I saw how hard you and Mikey..."

Tj slumped back in his seat and took a deep breath. He was bored out of his mind. Judy ambushed him while he was searching for Spinelli, and was now talking his ear off about god knows what. When he exhaled it was loud and over exaggerated.

Judy was taken back by this and cut herself off. "Is something wrong Tj?."

"Sorry Judy, I just." He paused to carefully choose his words. Problem was he didn't actually know what to think, he only knew how he felt. "Things are..."

She raised a brow at him.

He closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. If he learned anything from this school year or really just this past week it's that girls are weird and super sensitive about everything, you gotta choose your words carefully or you risk upsetting them. "I gotta go find Spinelli." But he's just a dumb teenage boy, so that's the best he could do. He gave Judy a light friendly pat on the back and left to find his friend. Just friend.

Problem is Tj had no clue where to begin looking. There was no obvious places that Spinelli would be at this dance, other than right by his side.

"Hey Hustler kid have you seen Spinelli?"

"Afraid not, but when you do find her..." With a sly smile Hustler kid opened his trench coat and pulled out a rose. He raised his eye brows up and down. Tj just rolled his eyes and walked away.

"Hey Guru kid, have you seen Spinelli?"

Guru kid was slightly annoyed that Tj had cut the line to receive his advice, but he regained composure. "When one is searching for love..."

"Oh my god!" Tj grunted and stormed away. "Does everyone think we're together?"

"Hey Señor Dork-weiler!"

"Ugh what do you want Lawson?" He nearly growled.

"Hey hey no need to be hostile little buddy, I just heard you were looking for your girlfriend."

"Ugh Spinelli is not my... wait do you know where she is?"

Lawson had a smug look on his face as he pointed to the dance floor.

Tj didn't understand the gesture, he looked back at the 8th grader for the answer to his riddle.

Lawson continued to point at the crowd. "Keep looking, right at the center."

Tj focused his eyes on the dance floor, there he saw Spinelli's tiny frame being twirled around clumsily by a figure much taller than her. He focused in on her partner; He was blonde, and fair skinned. He was also very clumsy which was an odd contradiction to her poised and graceful dancing. He twirled her around for the million time _"God is that the only move he knows?"_ The song ended and Spinelli gazed up at her partner. Tj had only seen her make that expression once before.

"Jhonny V." He was disgusted, angry, oddly a little nauseous. He continued to watch his best friend's interactions with the intruder, completely unaware that he too was also being watched.

"Somebody is jeallllll-lous." Lawson sung teasingly. Tj just gave him a light shove and stormed over to the dance floor.

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"There's Tj!" Gus pointed out when the gang returned to the gym.

"Tj! Tj!" Mikey's voice was the deepest and very hard to miss, but all his shouting fell on deaf ears.

Vince being the fastest ran after him.

"What're we waiting for!" Gretchen motioned for Gus and Mikey to follow.

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When he reached his destination he grabbed Spinelli by the arm making sure not to make contact with her healing-sprained wrist.

"Tj what're you doing!?" She pulled away.

"What do you mean what am I doing? What're you doing with baby tooth? You came here with me!"

Spinelli scoffed and turned back in the direction of Jhonny V. Tj picked her up off her feat forcing her to pay attention to him.

"Don't you have to get back to Judy?"

"Is that what this is about?" Tj laughed. "You've got it all wrong Judy ambushed me, I didn't want to hang with her."

"Likely story." She replied sarcastically and tried to wiggle free from Tj's grip.

Tj felt a tap on his shoulder he turned and saw Jhonny V looking quizzically at them.

"Uh can you let her go, we're tryna dance here."

"Sorry baby tooth but..."

"His name is Jhonny V, he lost the baby tooth 3 years ago, and seriously let me go before I break madame fist out!"

Tj gently and hesitantly dropped Spinelli back to her feet.

Jhonny V had a hand held out to her but she didn't take it. Instead she placed a hand on his cheek and gave him a peck on the lips.

"Yo Tj! Good news man! Woah..." Vince stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the site before him. The rest of the gang arrived and stared wide eyed at the unlikely couple. They each looked at their former leader for an answer but he just shook his head and left in a huff.

"You guys go get him and I'll talk to Spinelli, we'll meet at my locker." Gretchen ordered the guys. They ran after Tj and she swallowed her pride as she approached her ex-best friend.

She felt a little nervous. The last time they spoke was at the library where Spinelli was ready to shred her to pieces. Now that Gretchen looked back at it Spinelli had every right to want to beat her up; she accused her friend of being like her brothers, something she knew wasn't true.

She placed a hand on Spinelli's shoulder.

Her hostile demeanor was everything Gretchen expected.

"May we talk?"

Spinelli rolled her eyes and excused herself from her dance partner to follow Gretchen.

"What do you want? Can't you see I'm busy?"

"Why aren't you with Tj?"

"Excuse me?"

"He likes you, you know that right?"

"Well if he does he has a crummy way of showing it!" Spinelli turned away ready to return to Jhonny V.

"Spinelli! Wait! We found out that Randall framed you!" Gretchen yelled that a little louder than she'd like to have. A few heads turned in her direction and people began to start whispering.

Spinelli pulled her out into the hallway to talk.

"Excuse me!?"

"We heard him talking to himself, he confessed the whole thing! He also has something planned for tonight, we gotta get the gang back together!"

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"Tj!"

"Tj!"

"Yo Teej wait up man!"

The last call caught his attention.

" _Teej?_ You're calling me Teej? I thought you guys were mad at me?" He shouted back at the guys.

Vince was the first to catch up to him. He placed a hand on Tj's shoulder. "We were mad but..."

"That was before we knew the truth." Gus finished when he caught up to them.

"What're you talking about?"

The guys looked at Mikey, the situation had hit him the hardest so he stepped forward to explain. "We just overheard Randall admit to stealing the test answers, he framed you and Spinelli and got most of the 7th grade in trouble in the process. "

"Randall!?" Randall getting Tj into trouble was nothing out of the ordinary. It was shocking to hear that he came up with a well thought out plan though as he was never the brightest kid, before this year he wasn't anything more than a tattletale. "Where is the little rat?"

"Probably somewhere plotting his next scheme." Gus suggested.

"Huh?"

"Randall was also the one that stole the frogs, and he's going to drop them on the dance floor." Vince pointed to the designated splash zone.

"Whomping bobula!"

"And that's not all, he plans on framing you and Spinelli for it."

"How?"

"I don't know but let's not stick around to find out, we gotta stop him!" Vince exclaimed and gestured for the gang to follow him. He led the gang towards Gretchen's locker, their designated meeting spot.

As they were walking Mikey threw an arm around Vince and Tj's shoulders, and Tj did the same to Gus. Tj smiled at his former friends as they strolled the halls.

Gus cleared his throat. "Umm so what's going on with you and Spinelli?"

His smile faded and all those odd emotions flooded back to him. "Ugh I don't know man. Chicks are weird."

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"As great as that offer sounds, I'm not authorized to hand these to you."

"Come on Menlo, you have something I want, I have something you _need_."

Menlo shut his eyes and meditated briefly on the proposition. Sure it was tempting, but was he really ready to break the rules and risk his job just so he could have a chance with his crush?

"Okay. Here, but I must get the key back by the end of the dance." Menlo pulled out a key ring from his back pocket and removed one labeled 'janitors closet'. "What do you need from the janitors closet anyway?"

"It's the number one snooping spot and it has a vent connecting it to the girl's bathroom. I'll be able to get a good scoop and get some juicy Ashley A. secrets. It's a win win for both of us." Randall opened his hand up to receive the key.

Menlo contemplated the offer one more time. He hesitantly handed over the key to Randall.

"Excellent. By the end of the night you'll be with Ashley A. and I'll have dirt on just about every girl in school." Randall wrapped an arm awkwardly around the young office assistant, while his other hand snaked around his back pocket and removed the remaining keys.

"This better be worth the trouble."

"Oh it will be worth it, it sure will."


	26. Chapter 26

I'M SOOOO SORRY! Last semester was a disaster. I did well in my courses but I had no time to do anything, then I took a summer course and had the same thing happen, but I'm done with that for now. I'm 100% determined to complete this story, especially since we're getting very close to the conclusion.

VeVe2491: Thanks for the review! I Absolutely love when people try to guess what happens in the story. Keep it up! :D And thank you for noticing the evolution in my writing, I'm still working on it.

So here is another chapter. Enjoy. And again I'M SOOOOO SORRY!

Don't forget to review!

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"What's wrong with Menlo? He has been winking at us like all night!" Ashley B. whined.

"Like who knows." Ashley A. shrugged it off.

"Hey there's Ashley Q.!" Ashley T. pointed over to the nearly empty bleachers.

"Like what's your deal Ashley Q.?" The Ashley leader questioned when she found her red headed friend sitting alone.

"Like what are you even talking about?" She snapped back without looking.

"Where in the world have you been? You've gone total Carmen Sandiego on us. What's your deal?" Ashley B. snapped back harshly.

She looked up at her friends Ashley A. and Ashley B. looked angry while Ashley T. had a look of concern on her face. She sighed. "It's complicated."

"OOOH THAT MEANS IT'S ABOUT A BOY!" Ashley A. yelled a little too loud. Ashley T. slapped a hand over her mouth to shush her.

"Like who is it? Is it that exchange student Jean-Claud?" Ashley B. yelled.

"Is it Hustler Kid? I always thought he was soooo dreamy." Ashley A. added.

Ashley Q. bit her lip, she had no idea what she was going to tell her friends.

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As you can imagine things were a little awkward when the gang met up at Gretchen's locker. After weeks of tension the gang was suddenly thrown together and forced to set aside their differences for the sake of the school. Knowing that both the leader and the substitute leader had a lot on their minds, Gretchen stood up to the plate to address this meeting. After a recap of the events that took place outside and in Mr. Flynn's office, she briefed them on what they needed to do- stop Randall, present the evidence to the administration, and mend their friendships.

"I don't suppose you have a plan do yah Teej?"

"I'm thinkin' Vince, it's been a while since I've had to do this."

Tj paced around in circles. He hadn't had to get the gang out of a sticky situation since the summer and his mischievous scheming mind was seriously out of practice.

"You'll think of something Tj, just think back to the old days and the things that inspired you." Mikey tried to encourage his friend. Tj gave him a half smile and he returned it with a large grin. _"Now time to cheer up another friend."_ He thought to himself as he sat down next to a grumpy Gus. "So you haven't run off yet."

"I'd be lying to say I'm not tempted, but I know this is important."

"Well I'm glad you're here, we all are."

"Glad to be here big guy."

"Can I ask how exactly did you get involved..."

"At the beginning of the school year I was so excited for the drill team that when I found that it wasn't a military team.. I don't know I was upset, I needed something to distract me."

"While I don't condone your choices, I'm proud of you for forgiving our friends, I'm proud of all of us."

"Me too buddy. Boy am I glad that this feud is over." Gus gave Mikey a side hug.

Vince snickered at them. "Let's not celebrate just yet." He pointed to Tj and Spinelli, he and Gretchen had been observing their behavior during the meeting. They refused to look at each other, but they were being friendly with other members of the gang. It was obvious what was going on.

xxxxxxx FLASHBACK TO 4th GRADE xxxxxxxxxx

"Well at least now we know for sure, there's no way we're ever going to want to kiss you girls." Tj said concluding his findings on the experiment.

"Yeah and we aren't ganna want to kiss you guys neither." Spinelli jabbed a finger at Tj's chest, and the gang laughed.

"Come on we better get to class before Mrs. Grotke gives us all tardys." Vince pointed to the school and the gang followed. All except Tj and Spinelli.

"Hey they're still on the play ground, should we go get them?" Vince noticed as they arrived in the classroom.

"Let's give them a minute Vince, there's no use in all of us getting marked tardy." Gretchen glanced out the window observing her friends as they conversed. Vince, Mikey, and Gus joined her.

"Gee we never did anything like this at any of the other schools I went to." Gus laughed.

"Third street isn't like any other school Gus." Vince reminded him.

"And Tj and Spinelli aren't like any other kids." Mikey smiled.

xxxxxxxxxxxx END FLASH BACK xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

They've suspected it for years and have made numerous jokes about it behind their backs, but they know now that it's true. Tj and Spinelli are crushing on each other. ..Gross...

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Tj was trying to focus on the situation but his mind kept wandering back to Spinelli. _"Does she still have a crush on old baby toothed Jhonny V? Okay I know he lost the nickname 3 years ago but I don't like him. Ugh why did Spin have to kiss him?"_ And then it hit him ... Kissing...Spin... A classic game for young teenagers; Spin the bottle.

Tj stopped his pacing and snapped his fingers. _"_ Guys I think I have a plan."

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"Cold Fusion to Ginger Pisces, you read me? Over." Tj whispered into his walkie talkie.

"Loud and clear Cold Fusion, the Notorious F.R.O.G and I just arrived on the balcony, and certified its clearance. Over."

"Right on. Now Where's Waldo? Over."

"Waldo's here marking the splash zone. Hey how come I'm Waldo? Over." Gus asked.

"Cuz we can never find you. Over." Vince laughed.

"Falcon how are you and kissing Kate doing? Over."

Spinelli rolled her eyes at Tj's code name for her.

"Kissing Kate and I are informing the masses now. Do you have an eye on frogger yet? Over."

"Not yet, traffic is a little heavy at the moment, I think...wait a minute..." Tj paused when he saw Randall leave the janitors closet and head towards the gym. "Frogger has left the pond I repeat Frogger has left the pond. Over."

"I'm on it." Vince replied and ran up to meet Randall. "Hey Randall, a bunch of us were about to play a game, you wanna join?"

"You're asking me to play?" Randall clasped his hands together gleefully and grinned ear to ear, he rarely gets invitations for anything. "Wait a minute... what's the catch?"

"No catch. You see me and some of the guys are feelin' kinda shy about dancing with the ladies, so to take the edge off we were going to play spin the bottle."

"So why do you want me to play?" _This invite seems too good to be true, Tj and friends never invite me to anything. Though Vince isn't one of Tj's friends anymore. Could he actually be looking to replace his friendship?"_

"Well it wouldn't be spin the bottle without the chance of kissing a loser... err... no offense."

 _Okay maybe not, but hey at least I'll be hanging with the cool kids._ "It makes sense. So who are the girls that are playing?"

"Just about everybody, Swinger Girl, Up Side Down Girl, Gretchen, Spinelli, The Ashleys, Judy.."

Randall perked up when he heard a certain girl's name listed. "Okay okay! I'm in."

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Vince led Randall to the middle of the gym where a large circle was beginning to form. Vince took a seat by Tj and Spinelli.

"Good job Falcon." Tj whispered and nudged Vince playfully.

"Thanks Cold Fusion, is everything in order?"

Tj nodded.

Vince placed a hand on his shoulder. "How are you doing?"

"With what?" Tj asked like he doesn't know.

"Come on you know."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Vince rolled his eyes.

"Okay so who goes first?" Randall asked impatiently.

"Since you asked you can go first buddy." Vince patted Randall's back and shoved him towards the center of the room.

Randall shyly walked towards the bottle. He hadn't kissed a girl, but he's been thinking about it for a while now, ever since that experiment a couple of kids did back in the fourth grade. He didn't think he was going to get this opportunity anytime soon. What luck. He bent down and briefly locked eyes with his target before giving the bottle a spin. He watched it go round and round until... Spinelli. She had a look of disgust on her face, but then again when didn't she?

"OOOOH SCANDOLOUS!" The Ashleys cackled.

A few kids laughed at the irony, while others laughed at her misfortune.

"SPINELLI AND RANDALL SITTING IN A TREE K-I-S-S..." A few brave souls began to chant, but were stopped by the threat of Madame Fist.

Randall caught a look of sorrow on Tj's face, two guys dragged Spinelli up to the center to meet her doom.

"Well I may not be your first kiss, but I will be your best kiss." He said smugly when she arrived.

"Shut up weasel, let's just get this over with."

"Okay so how do we do this anyway?"

"Just close your eyes, pucker your lips..." She said slowly.

There was a long pause, but Randall was to shy to do anything about it, he just waited for her to make a move.

"NOW!" Spinelli yelled.

Randall puckered his lips and leaned in but was met with a wave of cold slimey water and the sound of hundreds of frogs raining down.

When he opened his eyes Spinelli was no where to be found, the spin the bottle players had backed up 15 feet, and the rest of the students swarmed behind them to see what had happened. He could hear the gang cheering nearby.

"Good job Gus!" Mikey high-fived his friend when he and Gretchen returned to the gym.

"Thanks, but it wouldn't of been possible without Gretchen's super magnets." Gus pulled out the magnet he was holding and waved it around, the magnet in the bottle responded by following his every move.

"Thanks Gus, and thank you Spinelli for teaching me how to unlock doors with a bobby pin it really came in handy tonight."

"No problem Gretch, next I'll show you how to start a car without the keys." The girls shared a laugh.

"Man you really out did yourself on this plan Teej." Vince shook his hand. Their friendly exchange didn't go unnoticed.

"Wait a minute! You guys are friends again!?" Randall yelled as he tried to wipe the swampy gunk off of him.

"We all are!" Mikey yelled and pulled his five friends into a bone crushing hug. Tj and Spinelli looked at each other and quickly adverted their eyes.

"You, you guys did this! Oooh I'm telling!"

What the!? Principal Spikey yelled when he arrived to check out the commotion.

"Principal Spikey, I'm glad you're here. We have substantial evidence proving Randall guilty of stealing the math test answers and the frogs designated for the dissection." Gretchen handed him a manila folder labeled evidence.

Principal Spikey raised an eyebrow and shuffled through the folder. "Mmmh. Mmmmh. Uh-huh."

The gang exchanged worried and confused looks as he went on.

"You think he's buying it?" Gus whispered to Gretchen.

She elbowed him to shut him up.

"These are some well written reports, Grundler, I think you might have a case here."

All the students cheered, save for Randall.

"But Principal Spikey!" Randall cried out.

"Menlo, escort Weems to my office, I'll be there in a moment."

"But... but.. but.."

"Come on Randall." Menlo yanked the snitch's arm and led him out. "Oh and I'm going to need that key back."

"Detweiler, Spinelli and Blumberg, I apologize for any accusations that were made against you three during this school year. I will make the appropriate corrections to your permanent records and notify your parents of the mistakes."

"What about all the students that were accused buying the stolen test answers?" Vince asked.

"I too will be excusing those students from any punishments they may have served for the false accusations."

Vince pulled Mikey into a hug. "You hear that buddy, you're in the clear! There's no way those schools are going to turn you down now!"

Mikey smiled and returned the hug.

"YOU HEAR THAT EVERYONE! RANDALL STOLE THE TEST ANSWERS! WE'RE ALL INNOCENT!" Tj yelled to the crowd, cheers filled the room. His friends congratulated him with pats on the back, high fives, and hugs. All except for one friend.

Vince watched as Tj and Spinelli continued to avoid each other. He nudged Gretchen's arm. She looked at him as he pointed to the two love birds.

"Hey gang, we have one last thing on the agenda. We need to talk about our friendship"

Tj opened his mouth to respond, but was cut off by a shrill voice.

"GRISWALD!"


	27. Chapter 27

Sorry again for my tardiness! But this is an eventful chapter. :p Enjoy. Don't forget to review!

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"GRISWALD!" A shrill voice sent Gus into shock. He stood amongst the crowd paralyzed until Mikey woke him with a slap on the back.

"Um guys I gotta go!" Gus started towards the exit, leaving behind a confused and annoyed gang.

"Well he lasted longer than I thought." Vince muttered to no one in particular. "it was nice knowing you Gus!" He waved to Gus as he tried to fight his way out of the crowd.

"Not so fast Griswald!" A second voice shouted from the crowd.

As usual Gus met an unlucky fate, he came face to face with the school bully Gelman who pulled him into a headlock. "What're you running from this time Griswald?"

"Me running from someone? No.. no.. I just... need to... go to the bathroom..."

"Griswald! There you are! Thank you Gelman, I'll take it from here. Gus where have you been? I've been looking everywhere for you!" The first voice returned and was getting more shrill and annoying as they yelled at the nervous nerd.

"Sorry Ashley but I had to help the gang, it was an emergency." Gus put a hand on Ashley Q's shoulder, she softened at his touch but still maintained a angry aura for show.

"Like I thought you ditched that raggedy gang of yours?"

"Who you calling raggedy?" Vince and Mikey took hold of Spinelli's fist before she could start swinging.

"Pardon me for interrupting, but may I ask what exactly is going on here?" Gretchen politely interrupted.

"That's like what I was going to ask, what's up Ashley Q?" The Ashley leader wasn't as kind in her interrogation.

Gus and Ashley Q. looked at each other, then at their friends, and back at each other. Gus crossed his arms and gave her a stern look as Ashley Q. sighed. "..." She muttered so quiet not even a mouse could hear.

"Like excuse me?" Ashley B. spat.

Gus nudged her arm. "..." She said without adjusting her volume.

His patience began to wear thin. "She said we're dating!" He finally shouted. Ashley Q. covered her eyes as Gus rolled his.

"EWWWWWWW!" The other Ashleys screeched in unison, while the gang exchanged a mix of shocked and disgusted faces.

"Wow Gus... has a girlfriend?" Tj couldn't believe he had the opportunity to even say that sentence. Gus shot him a look, he quickly tried to correct himself. "Not that you couldn't get a girlfriend! It's just..."

"Ashley Q? Like really man?" Vince cut Tj off before his foot could get inserted any farther into his mouth. Mean while the Ashleys were having a similar conversation.

"How could you Ashley Q!? Like look at him!" The Ashley leader pointed to the nerdy boy adjusting his glasses. Other than his height and his braces, he's still the same old dork that he was in the fourth grade.

"Hey!" Gus overheard their gossip, not like they were trying to keep quiet.

"What do you mean look at him!? Look at her!" Vince pointed to Gus's new gal. "You can wipe off most of her so called beauty with a tissue!"

Spinelli laughed. "Yeah try it, there's plenty of them in her bra!" Vince and her high fived.

"This is why I didn't tell you guys, Like I knew you wouldn't be supportive." Ashley Q. snapped back at her so called friends, she turned to Gus and embraced him.

And then it clicked for the gang.

"Is that why you didn't tell us Gus? You were afraid we wouldn't have been supportive of your relationship?" Gretchen wrapped an arm around him.

"Well sorta, I mean you guys didn't exactly react well to the news, not even you Mikey."

Guilt struck the gang and the Ashleys.

"I'm sorry Gus. We just weren't expecting it after all those years of taunting and teasing from the Ashleys." Tj patted his back. "But if this is what you want, we support you man."

"My sincerest apologies old friend, I let my concern for your well being cloud my judgement, I should have stood by you instead of...OOOF!"

Mikey was cut off by Spinelli shoving him. "Yeah yeah we get it! We're terrible people and we're sorry, can we all just be friends again?"

Vince laughed and pulled her in to join the group hug. "I couldn't have said it better my self Spinelli!"

"We're like sorry too, but do we have to hug?" Ashley B. cringed at the thought of rubbing elbows with the poor.

"Apology accepted girl." Ashley Q. smiled.

Ashley T. pulled Ashley Q. to the side and gave her a hug. "I accept your relationship, but please please don't ever leave me alone with them again! They're nuts, they actually got the idea that your family went broke!"

The two shared a shrill obnoxious laugh. "AS IF!"

Vince grimaced as the mean girls cackled. "Well at least we got Gus back." He slapped Gus on the back and pulled him into yet another man hug.

"Sure, we're all glad to have you back Gus, but as I was saying before we still have one more matter to attend to before completing reconciliation." Gretchen gestured towards their leader and rebellious friend.

They realized who Gretchen was referring to and looked away from each other.

Mikey and Gretchen took hold of Spinelli's arms and lead her outside, while Vince and Gus did the same with Tj.

"You guys can only come back in after you discuss your feelings." Mikey said sternly, crossing his arms.

"Feelings!? We aint got no feelings to share, Are you outta your mind!?"

"Yeah there's nothing to discuss here, come on let's go back in I have an idea for a prank on the Ashleys. All we need is some gum, the punch bowl, 7 rolls of toilet paper, and..." Gus silenced Tj by placing a finger on his mouth and pushing him to sit down on the front steps.

The gang returned inside leaving Tj and Spinelli alone together.

"Unbelievable." Spinelli muttered to herself.

Tj sighed. He looked over to Spinelli. "Sooooooooo."

She slowly turned to him looking like she was about to bite his head off. He looked away and focused on his feet. Silence fell back on them, Tj looked back at the entrance to the gym. Staring back at him with stern looks and crossed arms was Gretchen and the guys.

"Spinelli, I'm sorry."

She turned over to Tj, her lack of expression spooked him, his heart was pounding, he wasn't sure how she was going to react.

"For what?" She finally spoke up.

"What?"

"What are you sorry for Tj?"

"Um... Well... I apologize for whatever I did that made you mad."

"That's not how it works Detweiler!" She finally started to show expressions again, though it wasn't exactly the one he was looking for. "You can't just apologize without knowing what you're apologizing for."

"So why are you mad at me Spinelli? What did I do?"

"Do you like her?" She dropped her act of anger and cut right to the chase.

"Who?"

"Don't act dumb Tj!"

He wasn't acting though, he really is that dumb. "I guess I am that dumb Spinelli, because I have no idea who you're talking about." (See told ya.)

"Judy."

"Judy!? No! I told you she ambushed me earlier, I don't want to hangout with her, I want to hang with you Spin... I... I like you Spinelli". He felt like he was going to pass out when he finally admitted his feelings to his long time crush. He felt his knees weakening but that subsided when Spinelli pulled him into a hug.

"I like you too Tj."

He smiled down at her, they locked eyes for a moment before slowly leaning in, he began to cock his head to the side and...

"Hey guys they're about to announce the winners of the costume contest! First prize gets the double locker by the cafeteria! You don't wanna miss it!"

"Okay Gus! We'll be right there!" Tj snaked an arm around Spinelli's waist and led her back inside.

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Don't worry there is more story to come! We still have a few more loose ends to tie up.


	28. Chapter 28

I'm really late on this one. I'm soooo bleeping sorry to keep you all waiting. I didn't forget about the story. I have all the intentions of finishing it. I **_want_ ** to finish it. All excuses aside, here is what you've all been waiting way too long for. Enjoy. And again I'm reeeeaaaalllllyyyy sorry.

* * *

"Guys! Guys! I think it's happening! OOOF!" Gus tripped over his own feet upon reentry of the gym. He quickly regained composure and continued to the snack table where his friends were gathered. "I think Tj and Spinelli are finally going to get together!" Gus yelled, unaware of the fact that everybody at the dance could hear his every word.

"And what makes you so sure?" Vince questioned being his typical skeptical self.

"I just walked in on them and they looked like they were about to kiss! They were standing really close and their eyes were closed! It was just like when they performed the experiment back in fourth grade!"

"Egad!" Gretchen spat out some juice, and pointed her index finger in the air as if she just made a major scientific break through. "The experiment! Our original conclusion was wrong!"

"Man I've always sensed that they like each other, I just can't believe it's actually happening." Vince shook his head in disbelief.

"You didn't see if they kissed or not?" Just like Gus, Mikey can also lack the ability to be discreet.

"I kinda interrupted them before they could, but who knows what went on after I left. I think they're getting together tonight."

"Wanna bet?" Vince smiled and nudged Gus's side. He took out a pen and paper and started taking bets from the gang.

Word of their little wager traveled quick, and a few others wanted to get a piece of the action. He handed over control to Hustler kid who had much more experience in the gambling world so he could get a better handle on the growing list. It seemed like all of Spiro T. Agnew wanted in on the action.

"Whompin bobbula! Vince shook his head at the growing size of the line. "The kid that guesses the correct date probably won't have to ever work another day in their life!"

Mikey couldn't stop gushing over the romantic aspect of it all, and recited a few of his favorite love poems until the others tried to calm him down. "I can't help it, what an exciting time! Two long time friends realizing their lust for each other and becoming much more! What won..."

"Mikey shhh they're coming!" Gus nudged him in the side. The four put on there best innocent angel faces, acting as though they weren't just gossiping about their friends.

"Hey guys... why do you look guilty?" Tj asked when he and Spinelli returned to the gym. They noticed the long line of students behind them and wondered what shenanigans they missed during their short absence.

"Guilty? We're not guilty!" Gus started to sweat. "Guys are we guilty of some..." Vince shut him up by stuffing a cookie into his mouth.

"So you guys cool now? Vince asked, changing the subject.

Tj grinned at Spinelli, she turned her head to the side in attempt to hide her flushed cheeks. He motioned to the dance floor, which had been cleaned up by the janitor during their reconciliation.

"So is that a yes?" Vince shouted jokingly as they left the gang behind.

They managed to sneak in one more dance before the music faded out and the lights in the gym brightened, signaling the beginning of the costume contest. Cheering erupted around the gym, students gathered as close as they could to the stage to get a good view of the show.

This had been the moment Randall would have released the frogs onto the student body. Tj looked over at the gang and smiled, even while their friendships were strained they were able to set aside their differences and work together to save the day. He couldn't be more proud of them, they're really growing up.

The DJ introduced himself and reviewed the rules and list of prizes for the contest, though most were only interested in the first prize; The coveted double locker, located in the school's prime real estate, The Cafeteria.

Gretchen examined her outfit and sighed. "I do wish that I worked on my costume a tad longer. Having a locker in the cafeteria would mean that I wouldn't have to run to use it in between classes, worrying about being tardy would be a thing of the past."

"You're leaving S.T.A next week what does it matter to you?" Gus pointed out, though that didn't exactly cheer her up.

"Oh come on your costume is fine Gretch... Uh what are you anyway?" Vince checked out her costume not having the slightest clue.

"Not a what, a who."

Vince's face remained blank.

"Isn't it obvious, I'm Elizabeth Blackwell, the first female doctor in the United States."

"Oh I thought she was a nun." Gus tugged on her long black robe.

"I thought she was one of our founding fathers." Mikey pointed to the powdered wig on her head.

Gretchen sighed deeply and rolled her eyes. The guys did their best to comfort her she knew that. " _They'll never appreciate science as much as I...and I wouldn't have it any other way."_

 _"_ So we'll start off with the 3rd prize winner..."

Tj and Spinelli lost interest early in the contest, they returned to the snack table to have a moment to themselves.

Spinelli shoved a cookie in her mouth. "This school year has been a total mess."

Tj nodded. "At least we had each other." He turned to face her. "I couldn't of survived this year without you Spin."

The cookie that she was still chewing prevented her from responding, she simply wiped the crumbs away from her face and flashed him a smile.

Tj took her hand into his, she welcomed the gesture by gently squeezing his hand back. They laced their fingers together and silently rejoiced on how smoothly things were going. Usually when long time friends move into these uncharted waters, things can be a tad awkward, but for them it couldn't have felt more right.

The two had been so distracted they didn't even hear that Mikey had won 10 tickets to any film at the movie dome, they were also unaware of their own names being called out by the DJ. A spotlight shining down on them finally awoke them from their trance.

Heat rose to their faces after realizing the entire student body was staring at them. They backed away from each other and tried their best to act nonchalant.

"What'd we miss?" Tj whispered. Spinelli just shrugged.

The DJ decided to enlighten them. "Hey you two lovebirds, you guys wanna come up here and redeem your prize or what?"

"Who you calling lovebirds?"

"Huh?"

"You guys won the costume contest." Gus informed them.

"For the best couples costume." Vince pointed out and raised his eyebrows up and down.

"Oh brother..."

"But we're not..."

"Come on you two!" Mikey ran up to them and pulled them to the stage to receive their prize. The DJ passed them a slip of paper with the double locker's combination.

The lights began to dim again and the DJ announced that there was only a half hour left of the dance. The gang decided they had enough for the night and went to check out Tj and Spinelli's new locker.

"I've never seen such a pristine public school locker." Gretchen admired.

"Has it even been used before?" Gus performed the military white glove inspection on it and it came up clean.

"You'll be able to keep a lot of experiments in it Gretch." Tj handed her the slip of paper with the combination. "It's a cool locker but you could use it more than us."

"Why Tj I'm flattered but I'm afraid I must decline your offer. I'm not going to need it where I'm going."

"Oh man I completely forgot you were transferring schools next week, this whomps."

"What are you talking about Vince?" Tj asked. Gretchen filled Tj and Spinelli in on her plans after realizing they hadn't been around when Gretchen announced her acceptance to Oppenheimer middle school.

The word whomps was thrown around, as well as a few "I'll miss you"s and even some tears. Tj could no longer handle the negative energy this night had thrown at him and his friends. They needed to get out of there and make use of the little time they have left together.

With yet another heart warming speech about friendship, Tj pumped up morale and convinced the gang to follow him.

"Guys I have a plan."


End file.
